


PJO/TKC Misc Shorts - 2020

by HK44



Series: Misc Shorts [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, One Shot, Shorts, Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 38
Words: 20,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27911317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HK44/pseuds/HK44
Summary: Just a series of shorts transferred from tumblr.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Piper McLean/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Anubis/Sadie Kane/Walt Stone, Nico di Angelo/Jason Grace, Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson
Series: Misc Shorts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2043859
Comments: 3
Kudos: 27





	1. 19/5/20 - Percy and Nico

“Feral, disgusting little man,” Percy grumbled as he sorted through the mess of clothes before him. They were all cloaked in grime and dirt and blood, unwashed for days. “Why the fuck haven’t you cleaned any of this, Nico? My room looks like a godsdamn outlet store right now.”

“Lethe and Persephone got into a fight,” Nico said, sprawled out in his underwear on Percy’s bed, smearing mud from his socks onto the blankets. “So she won’t let any water flow and the others are backing her up so they won’t let any of their waters flow.”

“I still can’t believe you use water from the rivers down there,” Percy muttered, throwing some jeans into the pile he was making.

Nico rolled his eyes. “We have _filters,_ Percy.”

“It’s still fucking weird.” He shifted around the mount and glanced at Nico. “Also can’t believe you have this much clothing. When the hell did that happen?”

“Persephone has a lot of opinions about my level of self care,” Nico muttered.

Percy shoved one finished pile of dirty laundry into a basket and threw a sock at Nico’s face, clicking his tongue. “This is the same woman who turned you into a dandelion?”

“She’s very strange with her love,” Nico laughed. He stood up and took the basket, following Percy out of his room and down a couple of flights of stairs into the basement.

If anyone was concerned about the mostly nude, heavily scarred boy walking out Percy’s room, they didn’t say anything. Just spared him a passing glance. As it was most of the magicians had grown used to Nico’s constant presence. Normally when he visited it was to pass something onto Walt or to help him train his powers and usually he walked in, waited a few minutes and walked out.

Now he was showing up much more frequently. For Percy, it was nice to see a more familiar face around.

Even if he was helping that familiar face with his piles of dirty clothes because he was too cheap to use a laundromat.


	2. 8/6/20 - Percy and Sadie

Percy looked over at Sadie. “What, um- whatcha wearing there, Sades?”

Her face was squished up around the collar of her lifejacket, water wings hiding her arms from view. “Safety.”

He took a deep breath. “Sadie. I am the son of an ocean god. You’re not going to drown when I’m teaching you how to swim. _In a pool_.”

She scowled as best she could with her cheeks squished like a chipmunk. “Just tell me what to do first, Jackson.”

He waded out to the deeper end of the pool. “Alright, come here, I’ll teach you how to float.”

She walked into the pool. As she began to approach the dip from shallow to deep, she yelled out and backtracked quickly. “What the _fuck_? Are you trying to kill me?”

“Sadie. You’re literally covering in floating devices. There’s no way I could drown you if I tried.” He waded back over to her and gently began corralling her forward, trying to dip her backwards. “Now, let’s just-”

Smacking him violently, she growled and kicked him in the stomach. “Let! Go!”

“SADIE, YOU ASKED ME TO TEACH YOU HOW TO SWIM!”

“I REGRET MY CHOICE!” She scampered off to the stairs, pulling herself out with one heft on the railing. Ripping off her water wings and life jacket, she pointed viciously at Philip who was lounging in the sun, watching the two of them with minimal interest. “Don’t you judge me, you floating clay log.”


	3. 8/6/20 - Carter, Nico and Felix

Felix was thrown over Nico’s lap, drooling against his bare leg. It was always funny to see Nico in shorts. Something about his dark circles and neutral expression screamed trenchcoat and black jeans, but he was decked out in a hawaiian shirt, booty shorts that he had have to stolen from Sadie, one hand curled into Felix’s hair, petting him softly.

Carter slipped over and kept his voice low. “Hey. You hungry? I was gonna make some eggs.”

Without looking at him, Nico shook his head. “No.” He looked down at Felix. “I mean, I am hungry. But I’ve seen you cook. I can’t risk you burning the Nome down for me. Just seems rude.” He sighed and finally looked at Carter, eyes crinkling with amusement. “Also I’ll be blamed and I’ll never get invited back.”

“It’s _eggs.”_

“Yeah.” He patted Carter’s cheek. “Don’t kill yourself. It’s much harder for me to navigate your Underworld.”

Carter sighed, dropping his head. Ae he raised his gaze back to Nico’s, he reached over and flicked his ear. “You’re a little shit, you know. Has anyone told you that?”

“Yes.” Nico shrugged and shifted his gaze back to the TV. “It’s a compliment at this point.” Felix giggled. He scratched under his ear and murmured, “Go back to sleep, piccolo.”

Felix rose groggily. “Carter woke me up.”

“I was whispering!”

Felix pouted at him. “It was _super_ loud _.”_ He wiped off his mouth. “Oh, did I drool on you?”

Nico shrugged and patted his leg clean with his sleeve. “It’s fine.” He stood up and picked Felix up like he was a toddler, not a fourteen year old boy with working legs. Felix hummed happily, wrapping his arms around Nico’s neck. Nico spun around, walking slowly backwards. “I’ll make you the eggs, Carter. Right after I dump penguino here into bed.”

Felix giggled again, burying his face into the crook of Nico’s neck.

Carter rolled his eyes. “I can cook eggs.”

“You really can’t, Carter!” Felix called out as they slid into the shadows and disappeared from view.

He scowled.

Just because he burned most things didn’t mean he couldn’t cook. It just… meant he burned things. There was a difference.


	4. 16/6/20 - Hazel and Nico

Nico blew his curls out of his face. Hazel glanced up, tiny shreds of shadows wisping away under the streetlights around them. She fished a hairclip out of her pocket and slowly swept his bangs to the side, clipping them away. He smiled sweetly at her.

“How was it?”

She shrugged. “It was nice. Felt different.” She ran her fingers over her new braids.

Nico watched with careful focus. After a moment, he said, “I like them.”

“Carter did them,” she said. She stretched, her jacket bunching around her elbows. “Sadie tried to help but apparently she can’t lock properly.” She giggled. “Everyone was laughing at her about it.”

He kept watching her and she smiled at him. “You should put ringlets in.”

She frowned. “Ringlets?” As far as she knew, ringlets were for white people with white people hair. Meticulously and specifically curled into place. Her hair was already curly enough.

He gestured loosely. “The little gold rings people put in their hair?” Even under the night sky, she could tell his skin was flushed. Embarrassment. He was trying to relate and failing. She squeezed his hand reassuringly. “It would look nice, I think. If you clipped them in.”

She took a breath, pulling him off the side. It took a moment of searching but she managed to grab ahold of small piece of gold and plucked it through the ground. A couple seconds later and she’d manipulated it into a few braid rings, clipping them around her braids.

When she was finished, Hazel cocked her head. “Thoughts?”

Nico smiled. “Really pretty.”

She reached up to slid a hand through his hair before locking her hand back around his and pulling him into her side as they walked down the grassy path. “You know, I bet I could braid your hair like this. Maybe a little different but close enough.” She giggled. “Then you can be pretty too.”

He laughed softly with her, nudging her with his hip. “I’d love that.”


	5. 20/6/2020 - Jaz and Percy

While he’s staying at the Nome, Jaz notices how much Percy tries to hide his tattooed arm. She eventually has him sit down and uses her magic to heal the skin over, pull the ink out. It’s different than the hieroglyphic tattoos that she’d put on Walt during his bad years but ink is ink in the end.

It takes a few days. Percy hates being laid out, still, someone handling him with little avenue to escape, but eventually, she gets it all off. After they’re gone, this Roman symbol of ownership that makes her sick to her stomach for reasons that extend far beyond her family’s historic record of being owned and tattooed against their will, she privately sketches something else for him. Soft blue lines. Waves. Fishes near the bottom and horses built out of the sea foam at the top.

It’s like when she drew Walt’s tattoos, the pretty skull and ankh she made for him, but so much more different. That had been requested, something to splice over the memories of dying, of being covered in things to keep him living, to keep him from pain every second of every day. His tattoo was an admission of life tied to his death. It was something that reminded him of his past and the future he finally got to have.

This one would just erase it completely. A sleeve that hid the previous meaning away from Percy’s own seeking eyes. She didn’t want him to look down at his bare arm and still see those words.

She doesn’t understand how anyone could want to look down and see them. How did you explain them away to regular people? Is that why they never left? Why they created a life so separate from the real world? A city of their own? To hide from prying eyes?

Percy is wary about the sleeve so she watches as Nico sits down with a skin-safe marker and copies it directly onto his skin. It’s washed away by the next day but he shows up at her door the next night.

Nico sits there with him. Grover shows up halfway through. Annabeth appears with him and Jaz doesn’t know what to think of her but Percy smiles when he sees her and she comments on Jaz’s skill as she sits down on the bed with the others so she doesn’t worry.

It takes well into the following afternoon but by the end of it, it’s clean. Blue green lines, light at the top, darkening towards the bottom. The contrast of his skin against the colour is gorgeous. He stares and stares at it.

“Thank you,” he murmurs when she rubs ointment over it.

She wraps it up. “It’s no problem.”

He looks better with it, she thinks, in the days afterwards. He starts wearing tank tops, short sleeves. Every time he looks down at it, he grins and catches her eyes. She’s too gay but she understands why people seem to fall in love with him so fast.

He’s got such a wonderful smile.

She’s glad she gets to see it.


	6. 24/6/20 - Percy and Nico

“Are we dating?”

It’s an abrupt question, Percy knew that, but Sadie’s influence on him had been kind of subtle and he couldn’t help but hearing her voice whenever he stared at Nico. Carter’s relationship with Zia was beautiful and idealistic but wholly unreachable. It’s the cookie jar on the shelf.

Sadie was dating two boys, one a god, and that still felt more possible than anything Percy could copy from Carter.

Nico squinted at him. He didn’t look caught off-guard, just slightly disgruntled. He’d been in the middle of helping Felix craft a death shroud for one of his penguins. Walt refused to help mummify it so Felix had snippily complained about having to go for a lesser death tradition right before turning to Nico and asking if Greek traditions were cool. Nico said no but offered a death shroud anyway.

It was cute. The painting, the way Felix remarked softly about his penguin, Todd (of all the names, honestly?), and his efforts to have babies on his lonesome and the time he woke up with Todd on his chest squawking at him and how Todd didn’t like to bathe alone.

The question had been burning in his mind for weeks and now he was just watching Nico look utterly adorable, the domesticity, paint smeared under his eye, embroidery thread on the top of his head from where Cleo had placed it before she went off to do something else. He didn’t mean for it to spill out, not while Felix was mourning, but would it really be Percy if timing wasn’t terrible?

“Percy, I am _mourning_ ,” Felix sighed. “Your love life can wait until after the cremation.”

Nico grinned, a twitch of his lips, just the bare showing of his teeth. “Yeah, Percy. Don’t be rude.”

Percy wrung his wrists. “Sorry, Felix.”

“I’ll get over it, if you come help.” He patted the spot next to him.

Percy got up and sat down next to Felix, taking the white paint from Nico. He was not artistic by any means but judging from Felix’s work so far, that wasn’t really a problem. Nico pulled the embroidery thread off his head and began rethreading it back throw Cleo’s discarded needle. He moved to lay down on his stomach, picking up where she left off.

The scene of the three of them lasted for about three seconds before Felix sniffled. “I can’t do this!” he wailed and stood up. “I need to go hug my other babies.”

He stormed off before anyone could say anything.

Whether it was a real moment or his way of leaving the two of them alone, was up in the air. He’d seen Felix run off, steal Freak in the middle of an outing to find more magical artifacts just because he had “a feeling” his penguins were in distress. He’d also seen him dramatically proclaim a movie was terrible and drag everyone out of the room so Zia could have alone time with Carter after three weeks of her being at the First Nome.

A strange kid.

Percy loved him.

“Do you want to be dating?”

Percy bit his lip. “ _Do you_?”

Nico looked at him like he was stupid. Maybe he was. Maybe Annabeth was right and his brain was full of kelp, occasionally rubbing together to form one coherent thought. But still. Percy was an entity that took and took and hurt Nico without meaning to.

Who cared what he wanted?

Nico looked down to his work and began pulling the needle in and out of the fabric. “My mother liked to embroider things,” he said. “She used to make her own dresses when she did solo shows.” He paused. “That’s how they met. Did I ever tell you that?”

Percy shook his head.

“My father took Persephone to a show for their anniversary. My mother had been sneaking out of the house for years. She liked to put as many things on her clothes to distract from her face. Politician’s daughter and whatnot.” He titled his head, his hair softly shielding him from Percy’s view. “He said she danced like she was made of air.”

“How did Persephone take that?”

Nico laughed. “Persephone is her father’s daughter, Percy.” He titled his head back. His hair swept back, drifting past his throat. Percy swallowed. “They tried to meet her after her show but she always left so early. He said he recognized her a few months later at some political event he was lurking around. Power, wealth, discussions of murdering enemies.” Nico grinned, teeth bared. “What other place to feel worshipped in silence?”

The breath exhaled from Percy’s lungs like Nico had stolen it right from him. Plunged his hand inside his chest and tugged out, collecting it all for himself.

“She still danced like she was made of air.” His look softened. “He asked her out that evening.”

Percy swallowed thickly, unable to pull away from Nico’s gaze. Dark eyes. Teeth. Dimples. Soft hair.

Lips.

“I can’t dance.”

Nico looked away, fingers pulling out the needle. “I’ll teach you.”

“Annabeth tried,” Percy said and it’s like pulling a rope around his neck and shoving him off the tree. The shock curls around his spine, like a blaring signal that he fucked up, he made a mistake, _he was so stupid_.

Nico tensed. Then, “I’m not Annabeth.”

“No. You’re not.” Percy stared at the paint on his brush. It’d dried in their talking. “You’re both different people.” He looked at the drips on the fabric. White on blue. Bones. Owls. “I just meant-”

“I know what you meant, Percy.” Nico looked up at him again. “You don’t need to panic every time she comes up. I like Annabeth. She’s nice to Hazel.” He smiled. “That’s all I really care about.”

“You should be more selfish.”

“So should you.” His eyes were dark. They’re always dark.

Percy wanted to drown in them.

“What do you want, Percy?”

“What do _you_ want?”

Nico snorted. “I don’t want a lot of things, Percy. I just want to be alive.”

“I can make you _happy_ to be alive.” It’s too much of a certainty. He couldn’t keep doing that to Nico. He shook his head. “I can try at least. Really hard. To make you keep wanting that.”

Nico’s eyes were too dark. Always so dark. Always so unknowing. Percy needed to know him. It buried into his gut. He smiled though, around his dark eyes and whispered, “I know.”


	7. 1/7/20 - Leo and wolf!Jason

“So what happens when you’re not strong enough to make it to Camp?” Leo rolled onto his stomach, fiddling with the box he’d just finished piecing together. “Is there like a test you guys did or some shit to know?”

Jason glanced at him. “Yeah. It was pretty easy. She sent some of her wolves after you and if you could evade them or defeat them for the day, you were good enough to go.”

“And if not, you had to stick around for a few more months?” Leo popped open the lid and started cleaning all the metal scraps from inside. “Gods, I’d go insane. I’m wily but not that wily.” He sighed. “I’d never leave.”

“No.” Jason lifted his shield and looked at his reflection in the freshly polished shine. “If you didn’t survive then you died.”

The box fell from his hands. The clatter sounded in his head like a warning. He stared at Jason, frozen stiff on the floor. “What?”

Unbothered, Jason tilted his head and began reworking a spot he missed. “Well, basically, if the wolves catch you, you can either fight your way to victory or be torn to bits. Dakota and I were part of the same pack. He got caught but I managed to get them off him.” He leaned back, adjusting the shield in the light and frowning when the spot didn’t gleam. “He’s still got a scar on his leg from where they ripped a chunk off him.”

“What-” Leo could barely breathe. “What about the rest of your pack?”

“Uhh… They lead the wolves off our trail so I could help Dakota. One of them got eaten in front of us after a couple hours. I don’t remember his name. I had managed to get Dakota up into a tree and we stayed up there until midnight and so we watched the whole thing.” He sighed and shrugged. “It was gross but at least I had clothes to wrap Dakota’s wound with. The others caught up to us later and helped take us to a safe place they set up. It was pretty fun.” He beamed. “We won.”

Leo stared at him. “Jason. Jason, you don’t see how incredibly fucked that is?”

Jason blinked at him from behind his glasses. “What do you mean?”

“You were a baby!”

“I was three,” Jason corrected. “And very capable.” He patted his chest. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“That’s not what I-” Leo stopped. Jason kept looking at him, confused, baffled. Like he didn’t understand what was wrong. Why Leo was upset. Because he couldn’t.

He couldn’t understand it at all.

To him this was just normal. Expected. What you did. You got dumped off and at the end of a year or two, you either lived or you died.

In one sense, it was cool. Being trained by a wolf. Learning loyalty from the founders of loyalty. But now that sense was gone, fading into the ground and burying itself.

The amount of trauma Jason had to have gone through and he barely registered it. Leo registered all of his bullshit. It was why humor was his personality. Made it easier to joke away the pain of falling asleep under a dumpster when talking to court mandated therapist. Made it easier to laugh away the anguish of his mother burning alive in front of him. Made it easier to pretend he didn’t hate himself every second of every day.

Jason couldn’t even see any of that.

He didn’t know.

What kind of friend would Leo be if he told him he was broken? A horrible one.

So he smiled thinly, his insides snapping apart like a wire, and shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t think I was fully listening.” He knocked the side of his head with a screwdriver. “ADHD brain hours.”

Jason laughed and ruffled his hair. “No stress.” He looked back at his shield. “Gods, Leo, can you help me with this? I can’t seem to figure out why it won’t buff?” He glared at the dull spot. “What am I doing wrong?”

Leo bit back the responses that leapt to his throat and reached over. “Here give it to me. I can help.”


	8. 2/7/20 - Hazel and wolf!Jason

Jason squirmed beside her. “Can I…”

Hazel nodded lightly. “Go for it. Believe me.” She laughed. “I won’t find it weird. You did it a bunch of times.”

He grinned then looked her over before flattening her hair to the top of her head and slowly stroking her brush through it. She’d brought it out during her watch, wanting to clear her hair out before it knotted so bad she’d have no chance but to cut it all off. Joining her, Jason had picked it up and stared at the bristles for so long it would’ve been weird had he been anyone else.

She was just grateful he hadn’t started with licking her like some of the others would during their grooming-bonding time.

He gathered her hair up, sectioning it off. The brush slid through her curls. Whenever it caught on a knot, he undid it slowly with his fingers, occasionally sending a light spark from the tips of his fingers to cut through whatever he hadn’t managed to separate.

Every time he made a little noise.

Shock, she supposed. He was running on instinct, the bodily memory of clearing her hair from before, of doing the same to everyone else, but he could barely remember. Seemed unfair he remembered so little after six months but Percy remembered everything after three days.

Maybe, before her father took her back to the Underworld, she’d throw a fist at Juno’s face. A wild haymaker on her way down.

After all, she’d never been one to go down without fighting. And who better to fight for than a member of her pack?


	9. 2/7/20 - Percy, Hazel and Nico

“Is that a baby chicken?”

Nico looked at Percy. “Yes.”

Percy glanced between him and Hazel, Hazel who was very obviously stifling her laughter at the image of her brother walking around with a chick nestled in the curls on the top of his head. She grinned at him. He smiled back.

“It’s cute,” Percy said after a beat.

Nico nodded and went back to watching his mini pizza spin in the microwave. The chick stood up and pattered around the top of his head before settling back down for its nap.

“I named her Nibbles,” Hazel said. She wouldn’t stop smiling. “She’s very soft.”

“Where did she come from?”

“Father.” The microwave binged. “Henrietta passed but she still had a few eggs left. Meno split the them up with the rest of the girls. Nibbles-” He shot Hazel a look as he opened the door. “-hatched late and imprinted on me.”

Hazel stole a slice of microwave pizza, ignoring Nico’s disgruntled face. “She’s just hanging with us until she’s big enough to go home.”

“So in the meantime she’s….sitting on your head?”

Nico squinted at him, looking like a disgruntled cat. “She likes to feel tall.”


	10. 4/7/20 - Macaria, Hades and Hazel

Macaria kicked open the door to her father’s office. He was hunched over, as he’d been for the last few months, staring at papers, coffee pots building on his desks, souls stacked around him. A child looked at her, startled, scared. They opened their mouth, an inhuman wail releasing, but Hades merely shifted in his seat and collected the poor spirit into his lap. They silenced immediately.

He looked up at her, weary. “Mac, what is-”

“I want her in Elysium!”

He closed his eyes. Exhaustion crossed over his face like pain. “Macaria-”

“She deserves to be with the rest of my siblings!”

“She turned it down,” he snapped. Defeat, anger, hurt - it buried alive in his voice, crawling low in his tone. “And who would I be if I manipulated the-”

“A father!”

“- _the justices of this world!”_ He looked at her. “Macaria, she made her decision. There is no choice but to abide by it.”

“The others never had to make that choice,” she hissed. She stepped closer, smiling sweetly at the poor child hustled comfortably against her father’s chest. “The others-”

“Didn’t have mothers who tried to raise a dormant goddess hellbent on ending the world and we are _lucky_ we are the only ones who know about that, Macaria.” He stood up sharply, towering over her. “I bend the rules enough for your siblings, Mac, but I can’t deny them their own choices when they pick them.”

She crossed her arms, glaring at him. “She is a good girl. She does not deserve to wander.”

“Do not interfere,” he ordered. “I want none of you attempting to make her roll back her choice. You cannot help the person you love, even if it destroys you.” He sighed, shifting the soul in his arms. The child had looped their shimmery arms around his neck, eyes closed, face pressed into his shoulder. “She had made her choice. I will not hurt that. I cannot change what her mother did. Giving her Elysium while her mother sits in Asphodel is not justice for what occurred. Having them both in Asphodel by Hazel’s own choice to sacrifice sanctity - that can be allowed.”

Her face burned with anger. “It doesn’t hurt you?”

“It burns,” he said. “It burns and I hate it. If I were a lesser man, like my brothers, maybe I wouldn’t be. But I created these rules. Who would I be if I changed them to suit my needs? And what kind of father would I be, if I denied my children what they wanted?”

He looked over at the sleeping soul. “The world spends enough time doing that to them.”

* * *

Hazel blinked. The world fell into view. Macaria released her hands, leaning back to stare at the stars. 

“We all get Elysium?”

Macaria nodded. “He makes the stupidest arguments for it. She saved a bird, the bird went on to become pivotal in helping to stop a war. He helped to grow crops, which, as a creature of the Underworld, should be impossible which means he helped feed us all. You and Nico are among the few who will never have to be argued for.”

Folding her hands over her lap, Hazel looked down to her fingers. “I love my mother,” she said after a moment.

“I know.” Macaria smiled softly. “I’m so glad you got a second chance. Now we can have you again.” She laughed and looked back to the sky. “When you die properly this time. Old. Wrinkly. Two and half children. Crippling dementia.” She leaned in close, her voice a whisper, laughter still alive. “Live with family, die with family, be _home_ with family.”

Hazel laughed in time with her. She looked down back her hands. “That sounds nice.”

“I try to make it such.”


	11. 6/7/20 - Carter

Carter kisses his girlfriend goodbye when she goes back to the first nome to train the others as she was trained. She’s not officially on the path of the gods but she says she’ll comes back often.

He kisses his girlfriend goodbye and wakes up, having watched her be swallowed whole by a giant snake. He doesn’t sleep that night.

He kisses his sister goodnight, a silent peck on her forehead that she rolls her eyes at but doesn’t rub away. She walks into her room and the door clicks shut. The lock turns. It will open in the morning.

He kisses his sister goodnight and wakes up in a cold sweat, the image of her bloodied mangled body still covering his eyes. He doesn’t sleep that night.

He dreams of Walt dead on arrival, a curse wracked his body so heavily and they were all too late to push Anubis into him. He thinks of the anklebiters, Julian impaled on his own khopesh, Felix burned to death in a desert where his ice-preferred powers have no place. Cleo choked to death by shadowy hands, Shelby blown up on her own wand. Amos hanging from a noose.

Who said he could protect them?

Who said he could do anything?

He doesn’t sleep.


	12. 8/7/20 - Nico

Nico goes to sleep behind a dumpster, his stomach crawling with hunger. He goes to sleep and thinks he’s going to die.

He wakes up in a warm bed with someone beside him. She has a white crown adorned her head. It almost looks like bones. She smiles when she sees him staring. He smiles back. She strokes his hair softly. He closes his eyes and goes back to sleep.

He wakes up again. Same bed. Different room. The lighting is kinder. It smells less a hospital, more like fruit. A man is sitting in a chair watching him. He’s fiddling with a crown of woven flowers. Nico stares at him. He’s familiar. The man puts the crown down and approaches him. He feeds him a small dish of crackers, helps him swallows down pomegranate juice and then tucks him back in. Nico goes back to sleep.

He wakes up again. Same room, but the walls are adorned with fairy lights instead of torches. There are more crackers on the table beside his bed. A pitcher of juice. Again, the room isn’t empty. Instead, another man sits across from him, skin as dark as the earth and wings as black as the night sky. Nico stares at him. When he stands, he lifts a scythe.

Nico thinks of Percy handing him a figurine. A man in dark robes and a staff. Black helmet. Dark eyes. He thinks of the first man, his crown of flowers. He thinks of the woman, her crown of bones. He thinks of the juice, pomegranate. The crackers, wheat.

 _Oh_.


	13. 8/7/20 - Jason, Piper and Leo

Jason snarls around the boy’s throat. Blood covers his tongue as he digs in deeper. When he rears his head back, a giant chunk of muscle and skin comes with him. He spits it out.

The boy - Dylan - is choking, gasping desperately. The air around him calms. His body quakes and shudders, turning into a vapour. Jason doesn’t know why. He also doesn’t care. Growling, he prowls around the unknown creature who’d just tried to hurt his friends - friends he doesn’t remember but friends nonetheless. The creature vanishes, leaving behind a blackened pool of liquid where it’s throat had been. When Jason touches it, it’s cool, like liquified air.

He wipes the blood from his mouth as he finally raises. His sword had been scattered to the side during the scuffle that led to him tearing out the being’s throat. He picks it up and examines it curiously before checking in on his friends.

They’re both staring at him with abject horror. He tilts his head and approaches. There’s something stuck in his mind. He can’t find the words to reassure them of their safety so he chuffs deeply and walks quicker as they begin to back up, tugging at each other’s clothes.

They’re cornered before they can flee.

He leans in deep, rubbing his face against their throats and faces. Inhaling in their scents - a homey campfire and the smell of passionfruit. It’s wonderful.

“Jason,” Piper whispers. “Please back up.”

He does.

There’s only fear in her eyes when he takes her in. Leo has the same look, with added confusion. His fists are balled at his sides. They both look ready to run.

“You’re okay,” he says slowly. Maybe they don’t realize it. “You’re safe. I got rid of it.”

They nod but the fear doesn’t leave their eyes. Dragging his tongue around his teeth, he spits out blood and skin. He smiles gently at them once more and leans in to nuzzle them again. They quake at the touch but don’t push him away.

He inhales them in again and doesn’t stop.


	14. 16/7/20 - Wolf!Jason

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon asked: Love your Wolf!Jason takes; imagine the seven laughing because once you got accustom to his antics, is pretty funny; then Jason talks about the garden of demigod bodies and how he feast on it, and they back to being scared of him, also convinced that he need to get therapy

Jason walked into his cabin, expecting final solitude in the last few hours of his birthday and instead came face to face with the eight people he loved most.

Hazel patted the spot next to her. They had converted the entirety of his cabin into a nest of sorts. Blankets and pillows piled everywhere. The beds that used to be lined up in a strategic line had been shoved to the side. The statue of his father had been covered up with a giant sheet covered in fish.

On instinct he dropped to his hands and feet, prowling closer. Reyna was closest to the door. She rolled her eyes as he leaned in close, rubbing his face all over hers. She caught the back of his neck with her hand and yanked him in close, pressing cheek against cheek before pushing him away to Piper, who beamed up at him. He made his way quickly around the group, finishing with Nico, who didn’t flinch when he came close. He still made sure not to push too much.

The kid was still twitchy on who he let be close to him. 

He spotted a couple boxes of food and drinks settled just outside the pile and snagged it before setting it down into the middle. He nudged Nico first - the smallest and skinniest of the group. Everyone waited until Nico had his first grabs before they piled in. Pack rules: babies eat first. How else would they thicken up to hunt? And here Jason was - providing.

A sliver of relief rolled through his stomach. He squashed himself between Piper and Leo, nuzzling Leo’s curls.

“I swear if you lick me,” Leo threatened, “it’s hammertime. And _not_ the song.”

“Jaybird,” Frank called out. He chucked him a comb. “Use this.”

Leo regarded the comb the same way Nico and Hazel did - grimacing and complaints. Jason would never deny that have straight cropped hair meant he didn’t know how to work through any type of curls but, whatever.

They didn’t have a choice.

He shoved the comb through Leo’s hair, yanking the other into his lap and wrapping his legs around his waist, effectively trapping him in place. Percy fiddled through the box of snacks, pulling out a bag of assorted fruits. Jason groaned.

“Pomegranates!” He dragged the comb down the back of Leo’s hair, watching as it slid through every strand, pulling out stray musings of grease and metallic ash with it. “Oh, I haven’t had those in years.”

Percy threw him one. “Stay safe,” he teased. He reached over and bumped Nico’s shoulder softly. “The Ghost King here might yank you down home with him.”

Nico rolled his eyes and bit through a slice of pizza. “Eat your pizza, Percy.”

Reyna screwed open a bottle of fruit juice. “You know, I don’t remember ever having pomegranates at camp.” She sent a sly look over at Hazel. “I think a lot of people were worried they would attract negative attention.”

Hazel snorted. “Fucking cowards.”

Reyna grinned at her and turned back to Jason. “When did you have them? On the quest?”

Jason shook his head, getting up to grab a washcloth from the stack on his desk. He poured some cold water onto it and sat back down behind Leo. Leo grumbled but leaned back, letting Jason run the damp cloth through his hair and over his skin. “No, no, uh, they used to grow in the garden behind the Wolf House.”

Annabeth laid down on a pile of pillows. Her laptop - a Saturnalia gift Leo had made for her, though, weirdly he kept saying it was Christmas, which made no sense - was on her thighs. Her head rested on Frank’s lap. Percy was squeezing her ankle. “I didn’t know there was a garden.” She glanced over at Percy. “Garden?”

Percy shrugged. “I mean, the place was basically in ruins when I woke up and I was only there for like… two weeks before Lupa sent me off. I didn’t really do much besides train and sleep and figure out how to cook a rabbit in a way that wouldn’t make me throw up.”

Grimacing, Piper leaned into Jason’s side. “Yeah, we did kind of blow up the place.”

Jason kissed her cheek and kept cleaning Leo down. “It was pretty nice place. Sometimes when we won, we would get to spend the night out there.” He smiled softly. “Dakota liked to bury himself under the lilies because they smelled so nice.”

Shifting up and splaying against Reyna’s side, Nico unscrewed a bottle of water. “Did my step-mother keep everything lush for you guys? I’m pretty sure a bunch of wolves and wolf trained toddlers wouldn’t have a clue on how to garden without her help.”

Jason scrubbed at a spot on Leo’s collarbone. “No, I’m pretty sure that was the bodies.”

Leo went still in Jason’s hold. “I’m sorry - bodies?”

“Yeah.” Jason shook out the cloth. Metallic ash fell to the ground. He turned back to the comb. “Uh, the bodies we buried? Pretty sure they kept everything fertilized.” He licked his lips. “That’s why the pomegranate bush was my favourite. My first victory.” He grinned at the memory - the thought of blood on his teeth, his packmates howling with delight. “He was so much bigger than I was, but I won, and so I got to pick the spot. Put him under a new seedling of a bush and-” He shrugged. “-tasted the fruit of my spoils again.”

When he glanced up, everyone was staring at him. Except for Nico and Reyna. Hazel licked her lips, setting her pizza down on her plate. She clasped her hands over each other and took a deep breath. “ _What_?”

“Jason, weren’t you like… _three_ when you went to the Wolf House?”

“Two, actually.” He reached for his bowl of clean water. “Um… two to five, I think? And then I got sent to Camp Jupiter. Normally, you only have a year but if you come really young, Lupa will let you stay a little longer and move you up the training rack slower because… well, little kids aren’t fully developed yet, you know?” Dipping the comb in, he shook it out. “I’m pretty sure I was three when I got put into my first fight though.”

“ _First_ fight?” Percy asked, voice thin.

Jason ran the comb back through Leo’s hair. “Yeah.” He beamed. “I never lost _any_ of them. Impressive, right?”

The group did not look impressed. “Were they all.. fights to the death?”

“Not always, but that’s usually what happened.” He licked his lips and glanced around at them. “I’m beginning to think I’m doing something wrong again. I thought…” He put the comb down at his side. “I thought because you had done a- a nest that-”

“It’s not the wolf thing, Jay,” Reyna said softly.

Nico’s smile was grim. “They didn’t realize what the Wolf House was.”

He looked back around the group. “Realize that it was what?”

“A murder shack,” Leo said. His voice was thin and angry. “A children murdering shack.”

“It wasn’t murder,” Jason said, a little offended. “I’m not a murderer.”

“Of course, you’re not.” Piper swallowed so thick, it echoed in Jason’s ears. He stared at her. She wasn’t looking at him. “It’s just- we didn’t realize that-”

The relief he was feeling was vanishing. A whole day of being whisked around by little kids, checking in on the temples he was still building, running out into the city to pick up his gift from Thalia - a handmade dagger. He’d come home tired and sweaty, had taken a dip in the lake, teased by naiads because he swam like a dog, got cleaned up in one of the communal showers and come back to his room, ready to spend the rest of the day alone and instead his family, his chosen pack, were there waiting for him, grinning wide at the sight of him. And now their smiles had turned into looks of abject horror.

He let Leo go and stood up slowly. “Are you guys… mad at me? It’s not like I was killing anyone worth anything.”

Hazel’s eyes hardened. “That’s an incredibly horrible way to consider human life, Jason.”

“They failed!” he spat. “Was I supposed to just let them _live_? They were going to die anyway! Lupa would’ve had her wolves tear them apart. I was being _merciful_.”

“That is not mercy,” Frank said. He glanced at Reyna. “You knew about this?”

“Neither one of you were at camp long enough to hear the stories,” Reyna said. “Believe me. They don’t realize it.”

He couldn’t help the growl that echoed from deep in his throat. “Realize _what_?”

“That you went through a traumatic experience that no child should have to undergo,” Nico said plainly. He rifled through, grabbing a bag of chips. “I’d suggest therapy but-” He waved his hand vaguely. “How do you discuss that with a therapist?”

“Pretend it’s a metaphors?” Reyna suggested.

“I don’t get what the big deal is!” He pointed at them. “You’ve all killed people!”

Percy hopped quick to his feet. “First of all, most of us here have killed _monsters_. Second of all, any time fighting another person to the death was a prevalence to take part in _it was during a war.”_

“Even in the military you don’t train to kill by actually _killing,_ Jason,” Annabeth added.

“You always have to be ready to protect your pack!” Jason gestured wildly. Electricity thrummed through his veins and twitched around the edges of his skin. “How are you going to do that if you don’t _practice_?”

“Oh my gods,” Piper whispered.

He’d said the wrong thing again. He swallowed thickly and began backing up. He was being edged out of the group - he could see it. Just like when Cindy showed up and Collin was removed. Costing them too many near misses, Collin was the decided weak link against Cindy’s newer and vicious mentality. Collin couldn’t find a spot in someone else’s pack and he was _not_ fast enough to run from them.

Jason would be.

This would not be how he died.

“Jason!”

He glanced quickly. Reyna was watching him with careful eyes. “Come sit down. No one’s pushing you out of the pack. We’re not going to kill you.”

A chorus of unhappy murmuring broke out among the rest but slowly, Jason prowled back over to Reyna, settling safely behind her and Nico - the only two who understood him.

Nico picked up a DVD case and chucked it at Leo. “Put this on. I haven’t seen it yet.” He nestled deeper into Reyna’s side, pulling a pillow up to his chest. “I think you’ll like this one, Hazel. It’s about zombies.”

“It’s about mummies,” Leo muttered, opening the DVD. He put into a small little device, hit a few buttons and then a large screen shot up in front of them, like a holograph.

As the sound overtook the rest of the room, Reyna leaned back. “I do think you should go to therapy,” she said quietly. “But I also understand you don’t realize what happened to you was wrong. I’ll talk to them afterwards, okay? But no one is going to hurt you. Everyone here wants you to be safe and healthy. And that includes mental health. Okay?”

He nodded. She tilted her head back a little further and kissed his cheek before rubbing it against his. She bumped Nico’s side with her elbow. He rolled his eyes but shifted up and ran his cheek over the top of Jason’s ducked head before pushing him. Slowly, Jason made his way around the group again, careful to rub his affection into their skin once more.

Under his touch they were all so tense but they accepted it. He settled back down, close to Leo. Leo looked at him briefly as he filtered through the main menu before hitting play. As the movie began to play, he settled himself back down into Jason’s lap and handed him back the comb.

Jason glanced back at Reyna. She nodded quietly then stroked her own hand through Nico’s hair. He swallowed thickly and looked down at Leo’s curls. Slowly, he started to groom him again.


	15. 20/7/20 - Wolf!Jason

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon asked: love your wolf!jason with all my heart. i would love to see jason casually mentioning the suicide rates of the wolf house around the seven+, casual mentions of how he once woke up covered in the blood of his companion who had slit his throat silently in the night and just the seven+ reactions
> 
> Warning: talks of suicide, suicidal people are viewed negatively by the PoV.
> 
> Note: if you feel suicidal or believe someone close to you may be exhibiting signs of suicidal behaviour, please seek help.

Percy waved them down as he appeared from the shadows with Nico. Nico gave everyone a short wave before vanishing into a down the street. The moment they, the younger ones anyway, turned of age, they’d started meeting up inside the confines of New Rome. Sometimes they’d hang out at Frank and Hazel’s apartment or, as they were doing now, find a nice cozy nook inside a coffee shop.

Nico had already declined today’s invitation, citing he had been around enough living people for the week and wanted to nap.

Jason tracked Percy’s movements through the windows. Restlessness took him over quickly as Percy was flagged down by older Greek campers who’d moved to New Rome. He sent everyone an apologetic grimace as they flocked for his attention then, finally, managed to squirm his way into the pile of pillows on the floor, kicking off his shoes behind him. 

“Sorry I’m late,” he said. He leaned over and kissed Annabeth’s cheek, as he always did, even though they’d been broke up for six months. “Carter took everyone to the aquarium and I lost track of time talking to the fish.”

Leo snorted. “Did you lose track of time talking to the fish or did you lose track of time trying to find the manager to tell them they needed to change up their feeding again?”

Percy winced. “Both?”

A murmur of laughter slipped over the group. Piper handed Percy a small water, the only thing he ever really drank. She leaned into Leo’s side. “How come you’re staying with them anyway?” She looked down at her own drink, some sugary concoction that had Jason gagging the moment he tried it. “You never said. Is it because of the baby?”

Percy fiddled with the cap to his drink. “Oh.” He looked over at Annabeth. “No, no, no. It’s. It’s nothing like that. I just, um-” Annabeth, so subtly that Jason almost missed it, curved her hand over his knee and squeezed gently. He smiled kindly at her. “I was- Well, I kept reacting badly when I was around her and Paul so, uh, I kind of decided to kill myself.”

Despite the cheerful atmosphere of the coffee shop, the group fell deathly quiet. No one else around them seemed to have heard what Percy had said. Jason’s breath caught in his throat.

Percy? A coward?

“Carter, um, suggested I stay with him until I felt better.”

Hazel leaned over. “And?”

He smiled quietly. “I’m doing better, Hazel.”

“That’s good,” she said. She patted his knee reassuringly.

Jason agreed. It was good that Percy hadn’t killed himself. Only weaklings committed suicide.

He ignored that thought and took a long sip of his coffee, eying one of the cakes on the table and wondering just how much Frank would protest if he snagged a piece of his. The back of his neck felt chilled. The deafening sound of silence dragged into his ears. He didn’t look up, feeling the world out with his skin. His friends were all frozen in place, their breathing lulled and held, but there was no other force around them.

All the people in the cafe were continuing on as normal.

He relaxed his grip on the air around them and looked up to find the group staring. “What?”

“Did you just hear what you said?” Frank asked.

Jason glanced down at Frank’s slice of cake. He looked around at everyone else. “I can just buy my own version, if it’s that bad.”

“What?” Frank shook his head. “No. The-” He looked over at Percy, whose face was contorted much differently than everyone else’s. Downwards, eyes hurt, his teeth teething at the edge of his lip. Frank lowered his voice. “The weakling comment.”

“Oh.” Jason paused. “What about it?”

“Jason,” Piper started slowly. “Being suicidal isn’t a weak thing. It’s a very normal reaction to trauma.”

“I know,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You don’t think I’ve wanted to die? But was a coward who did it? No. I was not.”

“What the fuck, man.” Leo reached around Piper and grabbed Jason’s hand. “Seriously?”

Jason shrugged. “Everybody in the Wolf House has wanted to kill themselves. Only weaklings do it though. Because they’re too much of a coward to power through and be stronger.”

Leo’s warmth immediately dropped away from them. “What the fuck.”

“Every time I hear about the Wolf House, I want to punch Lupa in the face,” Annabeth said. She shifted uncomfortably. “Jason-”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he laughed. “I didn’t do it. And Percy hasn’t done it. Because we’re not _cowards_.”

“Okay, um, so a lot of things but I’m just going to start with, uh, I don’t think you understand what you’re saying,” Percy said. Jason opened his mouth to protest and Percy shook his head, raising a hand. “I _really_ don’t think you know what you’re saying. I was literally _in the motions,_ Jason.” He looked at him carefully. “Do you think I’m weak?”

“No way,” Jason said. “Because _you_ didn’t actually do it. And even if you were going to kill yourself, you’d die with some dignity. Not like Jasper.” He snorted. “I woke up covered in his blood and if it weren’t for the fact that he was part of my group, I’m sure people would’ve thought I did it or something.” He shook his coffee gently. “So fucking rude of her.”

“You woke up covered in someone else’s blood because they’d killed themselves… and the only thing you think of is that it was rude of him to do it?” Piper asked. “Jason, do you understand how fucked up that is?”

“It is fucked up,” he agreed. “Die with a little dignity. Do you know how many kids cowarded out because they couldn’t be bothered to actually put in the _work_ and had already decided they’d failed? So many more than the wolves killed.” He held out his hand, counting down the memories with each finger. “I’ve woken up in covered in blood, seen kids purposely impale themselves, seen them make a death pact and stab each other fatally. It’s all so pointless. I mean.” He dropped his hand back to his lap and rolled his eyes. “You don’t even know you failed yet. And even if you did, killing yourself in the middle of the night is so stupid. At least go down with a fight. _That’s_ how real warriors die. With dignity and _teeth_.”

They all just stared at him.

“Fucking Christ, Jason,” Hazel whispered.

He shrugged and smiled at Percy. Unlike everyone else, he wasn’t showing a look of abject horror, but just, hidden contemplation. Percy’s eyes dropped. He stared at his bottle of water.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” he said quietly. He put his water on the platter in front of them and slowly raised. As he passed, he ran a hand through Jason’s hair. He didn’t smile. “I think you need more help than I do, Jay.”

Jason frowned. “With what?”

Percy didn’t answer him, only slid his hand away from Jason’s head and vanished towards the bathroom. Jason frowned and looked out to his friends. They were all quietly gazing down at their drinks. Then Leo snapped his fingers. “Oh, I caught up with Calypso yesterday. She said Thalia taught her how to use a spear the other week.”

Jason grinned and pressed his cup to his mouth. “Awesome.”


	16. 8/20 - Horus and trans!Carter

Carter slid his fingers through his wet curls, unknotting a tangled piece. He bit his lip as he spared a glance at the mirror. Gratefulness pattered through him. He was still short enough that the mirror cut high enough to leave the questionable pieces of his body out of sight.

His height slipped through his mind. Zia followed after. Tall, slender, sleek. Radiating with the power of the sun.

His stomach churned.

He stopped looking at his face and grabbed his towel. He wrapped it tight around his chest, staring down at his feet. The towel cut off around his thighs. A thin slit drifted up his front. He swallowed thickly and shifted it over until the slit only teased the edge of his thigh.

“You’re too young,” his father had said. “The damage could be too intense - we don’t know yet. Just give it until you’re eighteen.”

Damage. He was born damaged.

He grabbed his bath box and opened the door. Julian smiled as he walked by, still tugging a tank top over his head. For a moment, Carter paused and watched him as he realized he’d put it on inside-out. There was something disappointing about seeing the bare of his back so freely.

“Hey, C.” Julian popped his arms back through the slots. “You coming to dinner?”

“Ah, not right now,” Carter said. “I’m-” Images fluttered through his head - his father, Zia, Ra, his face, his height, his body. “I’m not hungry.”

Julian shrugged. “Kay. See you later.”

Carter didn’t linger long in the hallway. He hipchecked his door open and quickly dropped his towel off into his hamper, pulling on a pair of boxer briefs and a thick pair of sweats. Who cared if it was summer? Heat was nothing in the face of wild dysphoria.

He scrambled through his dresser for another binder, squeezing into it. His back ached. It was tight.

_You’ve grown._

His stomach flipped as he pulled on his comfort hoodie. “I thought you all were leaving us.”

 _Doesn’t mean I can’t check in,_ Horus said.

“Leave me alone, Horus.”

_You’re mad at me. Is this about the speech?_

“It’s not about the speech,” he grumbled. His slid his hands under his hoodie and began yanking at the bottom of his binder. No matter how hard he tried, it dug into his skin. It had been doing so for the last three months.

_Take it off._

“Fuck off.”

_You wore it through the battle. You shouldn’t have. You need to take a break._

“What about fuck off and leave me alone, do you not get?” Carter pressed his hands to his face. Tears burned at the edge of his eyes.

He was tired of getting bigger in all the wrong places.

“Go away, Horus. I want to be alone.”

Being Horus’s host wasn’t proof of anything anymore. Not when Zia’s real companion was a male god. His presence felt like a joke now. He knew why Carter was happy to have him there, felt the thoughts, heard them, knew them and said fuck all, leaving Carter cold on the aftermath of watching Zia vanish into the air, golden and bright.

_Why would I want to upset you?_

“Go away,” Carter snarled. He threw a pen off his desk and at the wall, unable to hit the real thing.

Horus huffed. _I don’t understand why you’re so upset._

“You lied to me.” Carter kicked at the floor. His face felt hot. He wanted ro scream.

He hated being seen.

“You made me think that I was- because I was your host that meant that I-” His heart hammered in his chest.

Maybe everything was a lie and his father was right. Maybe his feelings would fade..Maybe Horus wasn’t the prayed for proof that he was right, his feelings valid and his father was just being ignorant.

Maybe he was just a little kid. Pretending.

He pressed his hands to his face and squatted. “Just go away, Horus. Leave me alone. Wasn’t that what all of you said you were going to do anyway?”

There was pause in his head, between all the racing disappointment and the wailing angry mess of thoughts, then he felt it - Horus quietly stepping away, leaving him alone in his misery.

He relaxed his legs our from under him, feeling his body melt into the floor. His binder felt suffocating, all too obvious. He wanted to throw up.

 _I wish I wasn’t here._ , he thought. He closed his eyes and pulled his hood over his head, hoping the dark cloth would swallow him whole. In his mind, he saw Apophis, sharp teeth and sharp tongue. He envisioned himself falling down the giant snake’s throat. _I wish I died._


	17. 8/8/20 - Percy and Nico

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on this prompt: https://butt-puncher.tumblr.com/post/625927620224270336

Percy adjusted the sails on the little boat as they set for sea. Nico had shown up less than an hour ago, hovering over Percy’s sleeping form until he woke up and nearly slapped the shit out of him. As though dead, his hand just passed through the other, which did not make Percy feel content until Nico swore on the Styx he was still alive.

“I’m not you, Percy. I actually like to practice my powers,” he said, which, rude. “Anyway, I need you to do something with me.”

“So you insult me and then demand I help you?” Percy swang his legs off his bed and rubbed his eyes. “How does that make sense? And with what?”

“You’ll see. Wear something warm and meet me outside.”

He had, taking the time to shower and leave a quick note for the Nome kids and another for his mom - just in case. Nico had quickly dunked them both through the shadows until they were on a rocky shoreline. Then he’d pulled out a tiny obsidian figurine of a sailboat and now they were sailing off into the sea.

Percy still didn’t have a clue what was happening but kept quiet. Every so often Nico would point off to the side and they’d shift course. He rifled through a bag by his side, tugging it open.

“Stop here,” he said.

Percy withdrew the sails. “What exactly is happening here? Not that I don’t love sailing into the dark at three a.m. with my boyfriend but I-”

Nico pressed a finger to his lips. “Shhh. You’re gonna scare them.”

Percy dropped his voice to match Nico’s haunting whisper. “Scare who?”

He just smiled and turned around. “When they show up, open the jars for me, will you? It’ll make it easier. There’s a lot here.”

“A lot of _what_?”

He just kept ignoring him, standing up shakily. Then he opened his mouth and began to sing. At the sound the hair on Percy’s skin stood up. Goosebumps slid up his arms. Like a siren, Nico’s voice seemed to call out to him, pulling him close with a haunting tone.

He was singing in Italian. The crash of the waves only seemed to amplify his voice. Percy’s knees trembled under his weight. He nearly keeled forward but caught himself.

“Nico-” he choked out. His body felt like it was being split in two.

Nico stopped. The world silenced. Percy breathed.

“Shit.” Nico pressed a hand to Percy’s chest and gave a sharp push. “Probably too much,” he mumbled.

With the touch, Percy’s head cleared. He no longer felt strangled by a strange desire to go home. Which…

What home?

He shook his head. “What was that?”

“A boat sank around here recently,” Nico said. “Normally, my father collects them himself because otherwise your dad will annoy the shit out of the other two with sea monsters and stuff but…” He shrugged. “Persephone’s home. So I figured I’d help.” His voice turned muted, near quiet. “They don’t get a lot of time together.”

Percy shook his head. “What does a boat sinking have to do with-”

His breath caught. Along the surface, drawing in close, rippling shimmery figures began to emerge. Nico smiled slyly and handed Percy thick leather gloves, pulling a few obsidian jars from his bag.

“You don’t have to help,” he said, “but if you do, the gloves will let you touch them.”

Percy tugged the gloves on without hesitation. “And the jars?”

“To take them home.” Nico leaned down at the edge of the boat.

Softly he began to sing again - still Italian, still haunting. The words, the tone, felt kinder this time around. Percy’s own soul ached to follow but he found it easier to settle beside Nico, instead of wanting to rip his soul out of his body.

The ghosts came closer and closer. Percy reached down with an open jar. Nico nudged him gently. He watched carefully. Water lapped against Nico’s fingers as he slowly coaxed the closest spirit towards the jar. He slid his hand down the spirit’s neck and then quickly back up. The spirit follows the motion, compacting tight into a bluish little ball. Nico gently cupped the spirit and placed it into the jar, sealing it tight and collecting another.

All the while, he sang, like a beacon calling them all home.


	18. 18/8/20 - Jason and Nico

Nico stood silently to the side. Jason was kneeling against the floor, his head ducked. Against the wall, he’d placed a small table with candles and a little plate. The window on the left wall was open, a light breeze trickling in.

Jason raised his head and cut an apple slice onto the plate. Nico’s eyes drifted towards the open window. A woman stepped through the wall. He remembered her, distantly, his mother’s face imposing on top of hers and Thalia’s voice whimpering beside him. She walked to the table but touched nothing. She looked wistful and broken as she gazed down at her son.

Jason didn’t acknowledge her - of course he couldn’t, but his shoulders relaxed. He cut a few extra slices of his apple then raised slowly. He blew out the candles.

Turning, he jolted in place when he saw Nico. Behind him, more spirits were gathering. Fallen soldiers. Friends.

Enemies.

“I remembered it was Parentalia today,” he said before Jason could ask him why he was there. He cleared his throat. “I don’t… I don’t normally do other religions but I thought… Maybe we could do something together. For my mom and Bianca?”

Jason blinked. Then grinned wildly, his glasses almost lifting off his face. “Yeah, that sounds great. I would love to. Just- let me get my shoes?”

Nico nodded. As Jason wandered off, he watched the spirits pull away pieces of the apple slices. The real thing stayed on the plate, browning slightly, but as they pulled, a ghostly like aura came with them. They bite into the slices, talking low amongst themselves. Jason’s mother touched none of it.

He was torn between telling him his commerations worked, that they were there, appreciating his offerings, and not saying a thing. The dead were a tricky business to deal with.

His father had made it a strict rule that Nico was not to interact with anyone he’d cared about if they died before him. Death brought longing and misery. He could summon them, he could go down and visit but it would not replace the fact that he was alive and they were not. Eventually, that misery would turn to his own death, complicit by his own hand.

He held his tongue when Jason stepped out, sneakers tied and a loose jacket thrown on. He grinned when Nico reached for him. His hands were warm.

Nico smiled back and, with a gentle tug, pulled them both into the shadows.


	19. 30/8/20 - Jason and Nico

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by this post: https://butt-puncher.tumblr.com/post/627763001786843136/nico-passes-the-pomegranate-to-jason-do-you

Jason took the pomegranate from Nico’s fingers. They were scarred to heck and back but all he could think of was the first time Nico had asked him that question. Black eyes and a scowl turned shocked as poison sloshed down his throat and into his stomach.

The garden was beautiful. They were secluded in a far off corner under trees and glistening flowers, but still he could feel eyes watching him, waiting for him to make a move. When he’d come down that afternoon, there had been a deafening silence in the otherwise bustling castle. The only one who didn’t seem disheartened was Persephone.

She’d quickly scooped him off to Nico and vanished before he could ask her anything about what was going on. It wasn’t that he’d never been in the Underworld but as far as their dates went, Nico tended to keep everything topside.

As soon as he sat down, Nico had quickly explained.

He knew his father had issues with him. He’d… defied him, during the war by listing his actions as unwise. He’d put a lot of effort in creating temples and shrines for other gods. He’d even removed the statue of his father from the Zeus cabin. When asked about worshipping, who to pick as a patron, he advised people go with their gut and he had mentioned that he’d changed his own patrons and prayers, away from his father and Lupa, to other ones who had been a help to him and his friends throughout their feverish quest.

There were whispers. Jason wasn’t stupid. He knew what people thought of him but as long as he had his favourite people he was less inclined to care.

Apparently, his father didn’t. Percy was untouchable by virtue of being his father’s only mortal son and by virtue of Poseidon, being, well, sort of a dick and quick to throw fits when pissed off. Jason didn’t really have his luxury. Ad much as he’d done, his whole life, there was no god willing to stick their neck out for him.

Well… No heaven based god anyway.

He stared at the pomegranate in his hands.

He trusted Nico, but the pomegranate didn’t belong to him. He didn’t own the underworld. The pomegranate wouldn’t trap him there in Nico’s arms. It would more of a group hug. Jason, Nico and Hades.

It was a daunting thought.

Nico didn’t say anything as he waited. Jason respected that. Trust was one thing. Action was another.

He thought of his sister and how delighted she’d seemed earlier. He thought of others he’d met, speaking of their employer like a close friend. Their trepidation only existed for what laid before him - for the lack of will he was giving up, but then he thought of how Hades had given his wife her own equality on their shared throne, how they all spoke so kindly of him, how even after death his own children would wander and speak to him. He had hidden his children away for their own safety and he never did anything about Hazel’s return to the land of the living. Even after complaints had been made about favouritism and the unfairness of it. How he was abusing his powers.

Maybe so but it was clear. That was all he’d ever abuse.

“My father is a good man,” Nico promised in a quiet whisper. His fingers trembled in his lap. “But you don’t have to… If you don’t want to.”

There were rules. Nico wasn’t allowed to summon people he’d been close to. It was why Bianca never showed up at his initial behests. He’d explained it so simply. Longing to be with someone would always stick no matter how close you could be to them after death. The only way to overcome it…

Death, itself.

If Jason perished, that would be it until Nico died of old age. In a honesty, dying didn’t scare him. But the thought of Nico being sullen and alone did. He took loss harder than anyone, probably because he could feel it. All the pain and anguish in one’s final moments, a curse on the children of Hades. Hazel seemed to have sidestepped it but it was possible - always possible - that Nico had just taken it on for her.

Her life was hard enough without that added in.

Was it a genetic thing or an actual curse? Jason had heard enough snide comments on Demeter to veer towards the latter.

He picked up the knife. “How much do I have to eat?”

“All of it.” Nico squirmed. He couldn’t make eye contact. “For full protection.”

Jason nodded. “I won’t need to move down here, will I? Not that I have a problem with that. I think I’d just miss the sun a bit. And our friends. I guess they could visit though.”

“No,” Nico whispered. “You can stay up top. No visits necessary.”

Jason split the pomegranate open and stared at the juicy seeds bleeding back at him. “Cool.” He peeled off one slice and raised it gently. “To not being violently eviscerated by my father.”

Nico laughed and reached over to squeeze his wrist. “To the protection of the Underworld.”

Jason grinned and pressed the slice to his mouth. Under Nico’s watchful gaze, he bit into it.

It only tasted sweet.


	20. 1/9/20 - Jason, Nico and Percy

“You’re wearing a skirt.”

Nico looked at Jason from over the edge of sunglasses. “I am. So?”

Jason swallowed around the dryness in his throat and looked over at Percy, who was focused solely on Nico’s backside and how high the skirt seemed to cut. Nico hadn’t noticed his staring, dutifully standing in line for his coffee.

Jason elbowed him out of his gaping and glanced back at Nico. “It looks nice.”

“I know.”

The line moved up and Nico walked up to the cashier, just out of hearing range. His skirt swirled around his upper thighs. The silky waist band was pulled up his belly and was adorned with a flower pattern. The actual skirt was black with little skulls printed near the bottom. His socks had been pulled all the way to midthigh but even that left far too much skin exposed.

Percy lowered his voice. “So this is how we die.”

Jason’s voice cracked as Nico leaned against the counter. “Uh huh.”

Percy nodded. “I call dibs.”

Spluttering, Jason turned to him. “You can’t call dibs! He’s a person!”

“Okay, but he had a crush on me so I think I get first shot,” Percy shot back, his eyes a wild storm.

Jason narrowed his eyes. Electricity crackled inside him, sparking at the tips of his fingers. “ _Had_ being the operative word there, Jackson.”

“Well, Grace-”

“As fun as this male posturing is to watch,” Nico said, dryly beside them, causing both Jason and Percy to nearly jump out of their own skin, “I did want to see The Mummy and if you two are just going to bitch at each other, I’ll go get Walt.”

They shot each other bitter looks before turning back to Nico and relaxing their tense stances.

Nico’s lip curled. “Good boys.” He sipped at his coffee as he walked between them and out of the coffee shop to the theatre on the other side of the mall. As the door pushed open, he paused and turned back to face both of them. “And Jason’s right. You can’t call dibs on a person.” Jason’s face burned.

Shit.

Nico grinned, wicked. “But first person to sit down next to me gets to hold my hand.”

The door swung shut behind him. They watched him stupidly walk off to the theatre, standing on the other side of the door like idiots.

“I’m going to win,” Jason said quickly, rushing forward to shove open the door and chase after him.

“As if!” Percy called out after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comes with art by my friend Angel - https://butt-puncher.tumblr.com/post/629442290427035648/nico-in-a-skirt-requested-by-achillesmonochrome


	21. 9/9/20 - Horus and trans!Carter

Carter starting testosterone for the first time. He goes to the nurse, he gets his shots done. Eventually he decides to start taking them at home. It’s sort of private. He knows he shouldn’t be but he’s embarrassed to be seen taking it. Sadie wasn’t even allowed to film or watch his first shot, even though she so badly wanted to.

He doesn’t mean to hide. It’s just shameful for him to feel so inadequate after years of struggling to assert himself to a position of confidence and leadership. He never cried in front of the nurses. He always cried afterwards, when he stopped off to pee and sat down in a bathroom stall, silent and angry because it could all go wrong so easily and he’ll move backwards again.

He can’t move backwards.

He knows he’d kill himself if he did.

He cries as the shot goes in. It’s half joy, half anguish. He never feels like enough. The changes aren’t fast enough. He still sees someone else when he looks in the mirror.

It’s never him.

He doesn’t remember the last time he did see his face.

 _It’s a journey. Too fast and it would scare you,_ Horus says.

Carter never invites him. He just always shows up, an unwanted presence, an unwanted observer.

He steadies the needle over his thigh. _Go away._

 _Here._ “Let me.”

It’s still Horus.

The colour of his eyes will always give him away. But he’s darker skinned, more African than Arabic. His hair is curled like Carter’s and he looks older than he usually does, a crinkle between his eyes as he takes the syringe from Carter’s angry clenching fingertips. He’s wearing a sweater vest.

“Oh.”

Horus smiles with Carter’s mouth. “I’m not a prophet. But you’ll get there.” He pushes it in, Carter’s lifeline. “It just takes time.”


	22. 13/9/20 - Jason and Nico

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Jason has been allowed one moment to break free from his perfect boy expectations and become unhinged I would’ve chosen this one.

The anguish in Nico’s voice almost drowned him. It rattled through his thoughts, the sound of it, the inflections, even as the god began to speak and handed the scepter over. Eros’s face was difficult to piece together, so harsh and blinding, but his lips - Jason saw them, curled in dry amusement. As though he hadn’t broken someone who didn’t need to be.

It was a shock to the gut. A sudden snap of electricity surging through his veins, turning him hot and raging. He jolted forward. The air whipped around him so fast he felt like he was gliding. The god barely had a second to look at him before he got his hands around his thin pale throat.

Rage didn’t become Jason. It was so expected of him to be an egotistical maniac because of his status as his father’s son and the tendencies they had. He didn’t want to live up to that view. He wanted to be better. So he chosen the other path. There were so many things he was supposed to be with that one - refined, poised, controlled. As though he were actually next in line to rule the world.

People expected him to be smart and on-time, a natural born leader. He never snapped when he could, even if he wanted to. He had to be level-headed all the time. It had been bred out him after his time with the wolves. Hold your tongue, don’t bite, don’t debase yourself.

But now, in the hidden safety of the forgotten town, he found himself dropping to their level. The god vanished under his grip, wheezing as he reappeared a few feet away. Nico looked baffled, shocked. Shadowy tendrils were draped and leaking around him like wounds. His wet eyes only served to remind Jason of what had happened - anguish, torture, force.

Memories that should’ve stayed hidden.

Jason knew what it was like to have his memories fucked with. He wasn’t a fan.

He reached out and shoved Eros forward. He slammed into a wall, letting out a shocked croak of pain as Jason pushed on the air around him, keeping him in place. It wasn’t hard to find his nerves, brimming with adrenaline and electricity.

Wasn’t that just perfect?

A human volt for him to amp up.

The first scream was satisfying. The second more so. It was easier than he’d ever thought, pushing down on the god and burning him from the inside out, his own body turned into a weapon against him. He deserved it.

He held him there for only a few more seconds before dropping him. Eros gasped, tears, almost as red as his eyes, had tracked down his cheeks and off his sharpened jaw. Blood trickled from his mouth. His body trembled where it laid, suffering the shocks that still burdened him. Jason crept forward slowly before drawing to one knee by the god’s beautiful face.

“Mess with him again,” he whispered, “and you’ll see that I’m can be a lot less nice than people think.”

Then he stood up and turned to Nico with a sheepish grin. “Are you okay?”

Nico’s eyes flashed between him and the god shaking at his feet. Then he nodded distantly, clutching the scepter in his hand. Jason smiled.

“You don’t have to worry, Nico. No one is going to be mad at you.” He walked forward and placed his hand on Nico’s shoulder, the barest touch he knew the finnicky teen would allow. “You’re safe here. But I won’t tell anyone either.”

Nico looked away from him. “You’re a strange one, Grace.”

“Thanks?” Jason rubbed the back of his neck and reached out. “We should head back.”

Nico grabbed his wrist. The shadows beneath his feet rippled and spread to Jason’s soles. “I’m tired of flying,” he said, eyes dark.

Jason smiled. “No problem.”


	23. 20/9/20 - Jason and Nico

“I love you.”

Jason looked up, his glasses almost balanced off his nose. He pushed them up and shifted up the bed, until his back was pressed against the headboard. Nico was sitting on his knees at the end of the bed, his head bowed lightly. His hair was braided loosely - Hazel had done it when she stopped by that morning, to the sound of some old film both of them missed out on.

She recognized the actress.

He didn’t.

Jason didn’t speak. It had taken some time and some advice from the people closest to him to figure out some of Nico’s little tics. Loud declarations followed by intense eye contact meant he had something else to follow-up with. He was just pausing, trying to collect his running thoughts.

He exhaled slowly and dropped his head as he crawled up to Jason’s side. Settled in, he looked away from Jason’s face but took his hand gently in his own. “Love is a strange emotion. I have to think about it with some people. But I-” He smiled, loose and easy. “I’m pretty confident about it now. Very certain.”

“That’s great.” Jason leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I love you too.”

“I know.” Nico snorted. “You say it all the time.”

Jason frowned. “Is that why…”

Nico shook his head. “I think about where I am with people in my life a lot. It’s sort of a necessity to determining how much energy I can expend for any given person at a time.” He leaned into Jason’s side. “Besides, if you cared that I wasn’t saying it back, I would’ve noticed. You’re not as refined with your emotions as you used to be.”

Jason laughed into Nico’s hair. “Is that a good thing?”

“I think my step-mom would say so.” Nico’s fingers ran over the back of his hand. “She said my father had no emotional ability until about a hundred years into their marriage and only because she annoyed him so much, he had no choice.”

Jason laughed again, the sound rumbling deep from his chest. “Only you would compare your boyfriend to your dad.” He nuzzled around the edge of Nico’s ear with his nose. “I love you so much.”

“I know.” Nico tilted his head to kiss the tip of Jason’s nose and then further upwards to between the bridge of brow. “I love you too.”


	24. 4/10/20 - Annabeth and Nico

“I don’t really… know how to say this,” Piper started. She fiddled with her fingers, refusing to make eye contact.

It was strange. She was normally very forthright.

Annabeth cocked her head. “What’s wrong?”

Piper exhaled sharply. “I think Percy’s cheating on you.”

* * *

The commute home was a nuisance in spades. She shoved past a group of chatting tourists and peeled out of the train, glowering at the man trying to either cope a feel on her way out or grab at her wallet. Like she was stupid enough for that.

The door clicked open. Walking through she was hit with a strong scent of mint. Putting her hat and keys down on the mini table, she caught sight of a couple new pots of mint against the wall.

“Your step-mother visit again?”

The giant mound of blankets on the couch let out a zombie like groan. She kicked off her shoes and tiptoed over. Nico glared at her, disgruntled as she pulled the blankets from over his face.

She kissed his cheek. He swatted at her and tried to hide again.

“You know we have a perfectly good bed, right?”

He grunted. “TV,” he mumbled. “Background noise.” He shifted some more, pulling his blankets tighter over himself. “Also dinner’s soon.” He squinted at her from behind his cocoon. “How was your day?”

“Fine. Apparently, Percy’s cheating on me,” she sighed, settling down on the rug.

He snorted. “As if. This is as good as it gets.”

“I know, right.” She looked him over. “I didn’t confirm or deny anything. I just said that he wouldn’t do that to me and changed the topic. Piper seemed to get that I didn’t want to talk about it.”

He rubbed his eyes. “You can. If you want. I’m fine.”

“Yeah?’

He nodded. "It’s been a few months. Pretty clear it’s not just some trick.”

His voice still wavered. Trust was hard to come by with Nico. She worked at it.

Percy worked even harder.

She smiled softly and stroked back his hair. “If someone brings it up again, I’ll confirm. But otherwise I kind of like it being quiet. Just the three of us.” She wrinkled her nose and looked over to the kitchen where her boyfriend was running from one end to the other, carrying a bowl. “And Persephone.”

Nico laughed, his voice soft. “He’s making pizza.”

Annabeth groaned. “I love pizza.” She slid her hand under the blankets to grab his. “How are you doing?”

“Sleepy. You?”

“Thinking about how your dad should have redone that amphitheatre.”

Nico squeezed her hand. “The amphitheatre I specifically managed to get you to design for him?”

“Yeah…”

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, weary for a person so young. Befitting of a man of his chronological age, however. “You just built that.”

“I think an extra column would have made it look smoother.” She pursed her lips. “I should call him.”

He let go of her hand and rolled over until his back was to her, moaning his disapproval. “If you die, I’m not saving you. I’m only here for the sea puppy.”

She snorted, slipping up to her knees so she could lean over his curled up form. “And here I thought we were getting close.”

“For criminal activity or business purposes, we can be partners,” Nico huffed. “Otherwise you’re just an unavoidable obstacle.”

She laughed, burying her face into his neck. His body shook with hers, his laughter muffled behind closed lips. “I love you too, ghost boy.”

He tilted his head back just to enough to look at her with one black eye. “I care for you too.” He rolled back over. “But I can only save one person and Percy is my boyfriend. Who my father also hates.”

“Such a risk to love someone so despised.”

“Such a risk,” he agreed. “Guess we’re idiots.”


	25. 4/10/20 - Percy and Nico

Percy pressed his hands to his face, moaning. “You’re fucking _my dad_?”

Nico pulled the blanket up past his face. “No.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Not yet anyway.”

Percy just groaned again.

Nico pulled the blanket down a bit, peeking over the frayed edge. “If you want, you can fuck my dad.”

“I don’t want to fuck your dad!” Percy gestured erratically, almost burning his hands on the campfire between them. “Why are you fucking my dad?”

“Well. He’s hot.” Percy screamed between closed lips. “And he’s very authoritative in a way I find reassuring.” Nico tugged the blanket back over his face. “Also, I like pirates.”

Percy’s footsteps scuffed over to him, yanking the blanket down. “You have betrayed me. And my mom. I thought you liked my mom!”

“I do. And she was actually very nice about it when I asked.”

His eyes twitched. “What?”

“You really think I’m gonna date some god without knowing what he’s like in modern times?” Nico huffed. He tried to roll over but Percy’s grip on his blanket made that difficult. “He’s always been a terrible person but time has erased that out some.” He paused. “Well, with, like, the raping and stuff. Violence for the sake of violence is still pretty prevalent but that’s not really a problem for me.”

“Oh my gods.”


	26. 7/10/20 - Nico and Hades

Nico stared out at the river. The sand scattered against the edge of where the raging stream flowed.

“She’s not here,” Hades said, almost as invisible to his son as Nico had felt his entire life.

“I know,” Nico said. He rubbed his eyes, willing the tears to vanish. “I couldn’t find her and I thought…” He look down at the little black figurine in his hand and out to the raging waters once more. “I thought she’d let me say goodbye.”

“No.” His father’s voice began to fade as he disappeared. “She left a long while ago. No goodbyes.”

Nico nodded solemnly. The presence behind him vanished, leaving behind only a cold chill. He looked down at the figurine once more before hefting into the dark waters and turning away.

No one ever said goodbye.


	27. 2/11/20 - Carter and Percy

“I think I’m in love with someone else.” Percy swirled his finger around in his chocolate milk, feeling small.

Carter peered over his reading glasses. He was so young to be so old, already cracked open and reading newspaper with a steaming bowl of oatmeal beside his hand. He looked like a father from a 50’s sitcom.

“Someone else, as in replacement of, or someone else, as in addition to?” he asked.

Percy wrinkled his nose. “In addition to.”

“Ah.” Carter bit his lip. “So breaking up is out of the question then?”

Percy grunted in response. Chocolate rolled down his finger. Droplets peeled off his skin and drip, drip, _dripped_ back into the cup.

“It’s… Difficult. Even if Annabeth went for it, she wouldn’t…” He looked away. “I don’t know what to do. It hurts.”

“You talk to Sadie?” Carter ruffled the paper as he closed it around his thumb. “She’s, uh, slightly better equipped with this than I am.”

“I already did.”

“Well, what’d she say?” Percy cut his eyes at him. Carter snorted. “Ah, right. Stupid question.”


	28. 4/11/20 - AU - Piper, Reyna and Annabeth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on https://happyk44.tumblr.com/post/633827752058945536/happyk44-happyk44-moon-godnico-being

Annabeth splayed out on the bed. Two hours listening to Percy rant and rave and then another hour helping him fine tune his shrine for the billionth time.

Why couldn’t he just use a candle like a normal person?

Piper kicked open the bedroom door and stood there, arms on her hips, eyes flaring. Annabeth sat up and grinned. “You look sexy.”

Piper stormed over and pushed her down, straddling her hips. “There’s no amount of flattery that can save you now. You’ve crossed the line, _Bethany_.”

Settling her hands into the nice curve of Piper’s hips, Annabeth rolled her eyes. “He’s my best friend.”

“And that’s fine! But using Grover-” She jabbed Annabeth’s chest. “That’s just cheating.”

“You say that like he’s actually going to come down and pick one of them,” Annabeth huffed.

“I like to believe in love.”

“And that’s what makes you a sucker.” She locked her grip and rolled them over, her hands snapping up to pin Piper’s in place above her head. “You look cute like this.”

Piper grinned mockingly. “Not happening.”

Annabeth groaned and dropped her head. “Pipes-”

“Nope!” In a smooth move even Annabeth couldn’t have calculated, Piper slid one leg under Annabeth’s outstretched body, locking it over her shoulder and flipping her over. She bounced up before Annabeth could grab her again. “No sexy time for you until you apologize and agree to stop helping Percy in his worthless crusade for moon ass.”

“No.” Piper flipped her hair over her shoulder and fixed Annabeth with a pointed look. Fine. She could dig her heels in too. Annabeth crossed her arms. “If you’re going to be a nuisance about this, I’m not cuddling you tonight.”

Piper’s face fell for a quick second before hardening. “I don’t _need_ cuddles.”

She was such a liar. She was almost as bad, if not worse, than Percy was when it came to demanding casual physical affection. If Percy was an octopus then she was a koala.

Clingy as fuck.

“Okay. Then we’re both fine.” Annabeth pulled her hair up into a tight ponytail. Piper’s eyes traced the bare skin of her exposed neck and shoulders. “I’m gonna order Taco Bell.”

As she passed by Piper, she deliberately held her body back, refusing the barest hint of skin-to-skin and smiled meanly at her girlfriend of three years. Piper frowned as she passed, the frown slipping into a scowl the moment Annabeth had her back turned.

“I don’t need cuddles,” she heard her mutter.

Annabeth snorted. _Yes, you do_.

She grabbed the Taco Bell menu pinned to their takeout board and flipped through it. Fishing her phone from her back pocket, she opened up the delivery app, eyes still trained on the words written in front of her. Out of the corner of her vision, she saw her phone go black.

She glanced at it. Gave it a little shake. _Huh,_ she thought, pressing the power button and watching it glow back to life. _Weird. Thought I changed the screen time._

She shook her head, scrolling through the delivery app until she hit Taco Bell. She passed the menu off to Piper’s outstretched hands, sneakily dipping out of the way when she tried to stroke her fingers on the grab.

Halfway through her order, the phone went black again. “Are you fucking shitting me?” she muttered. She squeezed the power button.

It didn’t turn on.

_What the-_

“Ann?” Piper called out. She glanced up to where she was staring. The TV was glitching, a mass of empty static on the screen. “Is it broken?” Annabeth stepped closer, Piper not following. ”This is how white people die, Annabeth!”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.” Annabeth glanced behind the TV. “It’s probably just a wire or something.”

“Of course you would say that,” Piper hissed, grabbing the metallic bat from her baseball kit stored by the front door. Bat balanced in front of her, she pushed herself up the wall. “Between me and you, I’ll probably die first. You get to be the final girl.”

“If I’m gonna be the final girl, it’ll be because I’m smart enough not to get outwitted by a demon,” Annabeth grunted, reaching behind the TV and fiddling with the wires. She checked the TV, seeing empty static. “Not because of racism.”

“It always comes down to racism,” Piper muttered.

Annabeth frowned, stepping out from the side. She picked up the remote and tried to change the channel but the static didn’t vanish. “Fucking hell,” she grumbled. “Must be the cable box.”

“Demon!” Piper protested. “Did you fuck with one of my sigils? I swear to the gods, Beth, if you fucked with one of my sigils-”

“Why would I fuck with one of your sigils, Pipes?” Annabeth yanked out the cable box and fiddled with the wires but it was fine. She frowned and turned the box off. The static didn’t vanish. She turned the TV off. The red light vanished but the static remained. “Hmm. Well, now I’m stumped.”

“Check on my sigils!”

She groaned. “If I knew letting you live with me would make a puppet like this, I wouldn’t have agreed,” she muttered, pushing up from her knees and checking the hidden painter’s tape Piper had pressed along the edge of the wall. It took a few seconds for her to spark her own second vision to see the hidden tape and it’s resulting intricately designed sigils.

“I don’t know why you didn’t have your own! Who lives without protection like that?” Piper protested.

Her knees burned as she crawled along the floor but she still huffed out, “People who don’t have werewolf friends?”

“Hahaha.” 

“I’m only kidding a little bit.” She grunted as she came to the doorway splitting the living room from the hallway. “I don’t fuck with anything or anyone that doesn’t belong to our Lady Reyna and/or isn’t human. That keeps me pretty safe.”

“Grover isn’t human.”

“Grover doesn’t count,” Annabeth muttered. She turned to crawl around the doorway when her vision split. _Ugh_. Another reason why she couldn’t bother with sigil. Hiding them from the eyes of others meant split vision and she was never good at managing second sight.

Her beliefs stemmed from strength, confidence, strategy.

There wasn’t that much magic, if any, she bothered to follow. Second sight wasn’t even necessary until she met Piper.

“What’s wrong?”

“Vision split,” she muttered. “Gimme a second.”

Seeming slightly more relaxed that the sigils in the area where the main issues were happening weren’t snapped, Piper nodded. Then someone knocked on the door. “Oh, fuck no.”

“Relax,” Annabeth huffed, standing up.

Piper swung her bat at her, freezing a foot away. “If you try to open that door, I will kill you.”

“If I learn how to apply sigils, will you learn how to use a proper weapon?” Annabeth pushed the bat out of her face. “Reyna cannot be looking down on you with approval for this.”

“She looks down on me with hella approval,” Piper said. “And fuck off from the door.”

Annabeth rose her arms over her head and backed up. “Fine, fine, fine.”

She watched with slight trepidation as Piper approached the front door, peaking through the peephole. Her stance tightened and she backed up.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” Piper hissed through gritted teeth. “Just an empty hallway. Don’t _fucking_ like that.” She turned out, her eyes glowing faintly with second sight before she pushed her bat into Annabeth’s hands and dropped to her knees, furiously checking on the sigils taped around the apartment.

In her absence, Annabeth glanced back at the static TV. _Hmm._

Balancing the bat over her shoulder, she stepped up to it once more, fishing her phone from her pocket. It was still black. She glanced between the TV and the phone, frowning. She didn’t pocket her phone but walked into the kitchen, turning on the microwave. It counted down from thirty, steady, until it reached twenty-five.

Then it glitched, numbers spiralling. The glow inside didn’t stop but changed from it’s usual bright orange spin to an unearthly red.

Grover passed through her mind, his weird brown aura.

Her mother didn’t use sigils anywhere but the bedrooms, citing privacy. The first time he’d tried to pass through, her light turned a dark brown, casting a creepy glow, before Annabeth had the chance to give him the code.

Red…

Red could be many things. The sun, war, fire. She pressed her fingers to the microwave’s buttons, reverting Aethin code to Arabic numerals. As soon as she hit nine, the final number, the microwave began to count down again. Her phone glowed back to life, the delivery app peering back at her. 

As she turned, she called out, “Hey, Pipes, it’s not a demon, I think it was just-” She jerked to a frozen stop.

Lady Reyna stared down at her, all six foot five glory and righteousness. “A god?” she asked. Her smile was not kind or threatening - a blank neutrality that had Annabeth shivering, feeling all too small and all too much like a slice of prey. “You’d be right.”

“Ann, why did you stop-” Piper’s voice faltered before she weakly finished, “- _talking_.”

“I believe she was caught off guard,” Lady Reyna said, stepping to the side. She gestured loosely to Annabeth’s side and Piper slid right into the spot. “I have something I’d like to discuss.”

“I told her not to get summer’s kiss,” Annabeth said. Her mouth was dry as hell.

“It smelled nice,” Piper whispered.

Lady Reyna frowned then snorted. “No, no, this isn’t about my candle. This about my _friend._ Nico. Lord of the night skies, prince of death.”

“Oh.” _Seriously?_ _Was he seriously choosing between their weirdly obsessive friends?_ “Okay.”

She pushed her hand through her hair, muscles rippling under her tunic. Annabeth resisted the urge to reach out and touch, gently slapping away Piper’s hand as she tried to so.

“I find their obsession… concerning but easy enough to ignore. But now they’ve roped you, my _lovely_ followers-” Annabeth’s knees smacked together. “-into their strange brigade. I find that a personal affront. If they’re so willing to court a _god-_ ” Her tone darkened, eyes glowing whiter than bone. “-they should be doing so of their own _merit_. Proving themselves worthy of such a man.”

Annabeth tried to respond but her breath caught out in her throat, releasing no words, just broken sounds.

Lady Reyna sighed. “I would appreciate you passing on my message. Hazel is… reluctant to agree with me. What with her own interest in one of your… obsessive friends. Talking with my own followers, however, is never out of the question.”

“Of course,” Piper breathed. “I didn’t like helping Jason anyway.”

 _Liar_. “Yeah.” Annabeth coughed. “Same. With- with- Percy.”

Lady Reyna clasped her hands. “Wonderful then.” She stepped back. “I hope you’ll heed my words about your involvement in thier conquest. I’d rather this not be the reason for my next visit.”

She was gone before either of them could say a word.

 _Next visit._ Annabeth stared at the spot she’d been standing. _NEXT VISIT?_

“Did… Did she just say she was coming back?” Piper whispered.

“Uh huh.”

“Do you think… do you think she meant, like… temple visit? Like… normal?”

“Uh uh.”

“Oh.” Piper sounded faint. “We’re gonna have to deep clean.”

Annabeth covered her face with her hands and sank down to the floor in a slightly tense squat. “Uh huh.”

“Might as well get a new mattress,” Piper muttered. “Since I’m gonna fuck her.”

Annabeth groaned. “ _Piper_!”

“You can join us! That was totally expected for you to do, Annie!”

Annabeth pulled her hands from her face and looked up at her girlfriend. “Well…” She faltered. Lady Reyna’s muscles rippling came back to view. Her stacked biceps. “ _Good_.” 


	29. 29/11/20 - Sadie and Percy

“I think they’re plotting against me.”

Sadie squinted at him. “Who? The babes?”

Percy scowled. “You know I don’t like it when you call them that but _yes_.” He looked up to where Annabeth and Nico were in deep conversation with Carter about his latest archeological dig. “The babes.”

Her fingers pushed back through her hair. She clunked her heavy boots onto the table and leaned back in her chair. “Well, when I think my boyfriends are ganging up on me, it’s usually sex.”

He pursed his lips. “Sadie. Nico’s _gay_.”

“Maybe he changed his mind.”

He pressed his fingertips to his temples. “He did not change his mind.”

She sucked her teeth. “Maybe there’s a Greek holiday coming up and they’re getting you a present.”

“Nico’s Catholic,” Percy hissed. “And neither me nor Annabeth have any strong religious ties.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Maybe they’re gonna kill me.”

She rolled her eyes. “They’re not gonna kill you.”

“Everybody wants to kill me!”

“Gods, you’re paranoid,” Sadie muttered. She glanced over at the three still immersed in their conversation. “Hmmm. Well, you’re sure there’s no holiday you forgot?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re _confident_ Nico’s, like, a hundred percent gay?”

“Yes.”

She nodded, tapping her finger to her lip. Then she shrugged and crossed her arms. “Yeah, they’re probably trying to kill you.”

He smacked his hand against the table. “I knew it!”

“You want a protection spell?”

He frowned. “Why would I want that? I can’t think of a better way to die than by the hands of someone I love and not some dumbass homicidal quest the gods shoved me on for a fifth time.”

She hummed then, “You’re life is sad.”

“You’re dating a zombie and a dog,” he shot back. “I will not be insulted.”


	30. 30/11/20 - Walt, Sadie and Anubis

The sips from her boba were clearly annoying if the twitch in Anubis’s ears were anything to go by, but she kept slurping anyway. Then, finally finished, she pulled away, cleared her throat and said, “So you know I think women are hot.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m well aware of your sexual orientation, Sadie.”

“And _yet_ you still hid this from me. Hid those-” She pointed at his chest. “-from me.”

He snorted. “I haven’t hid anything from you. I just hadn’t had need for this form in a while.”

This form being his so-called wife, his feminine counterpart with long black hair and very prominent breasts. Sadie licked her lips. “I may like this form better.”

Walt laughed into his sandwich. “Pervert.”

“Shuddup,” she muttered, kicking thigh. She turned back to Anubis. “You should bring it around more often.”

“I dunno.” He sighed, flipping his hair over his shoulder. She made a low noise in the back of her throat bordering on predatory. “You’re already so distracted by things and it’s clear this isn’t going to help that.” He shrugged. “Besides, would you really want to ask me to bring about a form when I’m not interested in appearing that way?”

She glanced at his face then back down then back at his face once more. “Maybe.”

“Tiddy fiend,” Walt giggled. She kicked him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on my headcanon that Anubis is nonbinary as a result of him having a female counterpart in actual mythos - her name is Anput and she's also his wife.


	31. 3/12/20 - Hazel and Nico

Nico pulled his shirt over his head and Hazel looked away. She would always look away. Not out of decency or embarrassment at seeing a shirtless man. Dakota slept nude every night that she had been at Camp Jupiter since Nico dropped her off.

There was no more embarrassment to have.

No, she just didn’t like looking at Nico. For starters, no matter how much his skin had begun to tan back to a healthy glow, anything covered by clothing was always going to be deathly pale. And then there were the scars.

There were far too many. It was like someone had stripped him of his skin, shredded it and then stitched it all back together before glueing it back on him.

It made sense in a way. He had scars on his arms and his face, but he’d always been small and skinny - death children metabolism, he’d laughed once - so torture was difficult when there wasn’t as much surface to wound. His biceps were scarred to hell and back but the healing of his skin was better there. The darker marks began to blend easier into the darkening of his skin. But his legs and chest would always stick out like a sore thumb.

Gashes and gouges and burn marks. Some days she’d find him furiously rubbing away at his thighs. Nerve loss? Or maybe he kept seeing his own blood splattered on him and was trying to make it go away.

There were, of course, the usual monster wounds and puncture marks but she’d never be able to tell the difference between everything that laid out on his skin like a story that never should’ve been told.


	32. 3/12/20 - Piper and Jason

Piper snorted. “The reason you can’t find a link between why you like Nico and why you like Leo is because there isn’t one amongst their personalities. Amongst physicalities though…” She grinned wide. Jason stared at her. Her smile fell and so did the amusement in her eyes. “Jason, they’re twinks!”

He frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. What does a snack cake have to do with this?”

“Jason-”

“I don’t even like Twinkies,” he went on.

She pressed a hand to his shoulder and said with complete seriousness, “I’m going to slap you.”


	33. 4/12/2020 - Piper and Jason

“If you don’t survive basic training, there’s no way you’d survive the journey from the Wolf House to New Rome, even to live in the city and not be part of the barracks,” Jason hummed. “And frankly, why should you get to? It’s not like you were born there and you haven’t completed any service to prove you deserve to be there.”

Piper swallowed thickly. “Do you hear what you’re saying?”

He smiled at her. “Yeah. I hear every word and before you ask, _no_ , I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

She looked away, her brows furrowing. “It’s cruel though.”

“It’s mercy.” He pulled the tea bag out with the ring of his timer, chucking the bag over his shoulder. The air shifted around it, so evident with the steam that flushed from it, and it landed perfectly in the trash can. “Imagine what would happen if they were caught by monsters on the journey. That would be slow and painful. This way it’s quick.”

“And painless?” she asked as he pushed the mug towards her. She wrapped her hands around the steaming mug. It was warm. Which was good.

Jason’s lack of answer and piercing eyes left her feeling cold.

She looked away. “I just never expected you to come from a place like that. You see value in everyone.”

“Because they’ve proven themselves already,” he said simply. He crossed his arms over the table and smiled. “The kids that were mercied at the Wolf House - they couldn’t prove themselves. They couldn’t leaned to use their powers, they could barely use a sword or a knife or even fight with their fists. They didn’t deserve to be valued. But you guys-”

His smile widened. “You’ve done that. And everyone in my Cohort proved themselves. Legacies don’t just show up for service. They might not go to the Wolf House for training but they have proof that they’re worth a place in our barracks. Why wouldn’t I see value in someone that’s already proven they have it?”

She couldn’t respond to that, just nodded dimly and lifted her cup to her lips, with one very clear thought in her head.

He should never have kids of his own. And he was _never_ going to be alone with _any_ of hers.


	34. 4/12/2020 - Percy and Nico

“Is there something wrong with the way I smile?”

Percy jolted, nearly nicking his thumb against the knife. He laid it out on the cutting board and turned to Nico behind him. “What?”

Nico leaned against the doorway, wrapping his arms around his chest. Protective, defensive. “I dunno. Uh, yesterday, when we were with Jason, well-” His face scrunched up. He looked down to his feet. “I just- I’ve noticed whenever I smile or… _laugh_ you get this… weird look on your face. And-” He shrugged. “I mean people have weird laughs and sometimes they don’t smile right and I just- I was just curious.”

“No.” Percy let out a breathy short little laugh. “Gods, no. You’re fine. I just-” He caught himself. Nico glanced up and raised an eyebrow curiously. This time Percy looked away. “I just- I remember when you used to… do that a lot more. I mean, we weren’t- we weren’t close then but… you were still…”

“Happy,” Nico finished for him as the silence trailed after Percy’s words.

Percy looked down. His apron - a gag gift from Grover, naked chest and mermaid tail - was dusted with flour. He patted it nervously. “Yeah.”

“I’m happy now,” Nico said slowly. “So… what’s with the look?”

 _It was my fault._ Percy licked his lips but didn’t speak. _It was my fault you hurt for so long and I didn’t notice and I was the only one who cared, I should’ve noticed_.

“Percy… you have to stop blaming yourself for what happened to me.” Percy caught his eyes. He rolled his shoulders timidly but dropped his arms to his side, hands clenching into fists. “What happened…. happened. You were involved, maybe, sure, but so were a lot of people. It’s not like you blame Than for me going to investigate the Doors on my own.”

How could he? The god was strapped to a rock and in need of saving when Nico plunked off the map to be tortured. And sure, maybe, other people were around but he should’ve pulled Bianca from the robot, he should’ve argued harder. He should’ve _checked_ everyone’s pockets before they left the junkyard.

And Nico was alone for so long and no one else cared about him but Percy and even then he didn’t do enough, _knowing_ he was the only person looking for him, the only person interested in the accursed son of Hades.

“I just- I just-” He was scarred to hell and back. He woke up crying, shoving at Percy’s hands, begging voiceless. Shadows would leak from his skin. He’d spent his entire childhood being trained by gods and ghosts who didn’t have mortal confines to deal with, overpowering himself every single time. “I just-” Percy wrapped his arms around his chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was making a look.”

“You’re always making a look.” Nico stepped into the kitchen, approaching Percy as one would a stray dog or cat. Slowly he raised his hand and went Percy didn’t move away from it, he slid it through his hair. “I don’t blame you. Okay? It’s been years, Perce. I’m healing.” His hand slid down and cupped around Percy’s jaw. “Can you heal with me?”

“I’m trying.” He was. He was doing so well. No more night terrors about Tartarus, no more unfortunate flashbacks when Annabeth so much as coughed or the air tasted a little off. Tartarus was sulphur and death and yet even walking into a bakery, the scent of butter and baked goods, was too much of a change from fresh and clean air. He didn’t spend his hours sunk deep in Carter’s pool or at the bottom of the ocean when the summer was just a _tad_ too hot.

But this was different. That was something that happened to him, pain he went through. Nico was someone he hurt.

How do you heal from that?

Nico hummed and leaned up on the tips of his toes, kissing the tip of Percy’s nose. “Take breaths,” he whispered. “I’m fine. I’m happy. You helped with that. I think that replaces anything you blame yourself for on my behalf.” He patted Percy’s arm. “And if you keep looking at me oddly, I might stop. Do you want that?”

“No.” No, of course. Nico’s smile, his genuine smile was warm and comforting. His laugh was the same. “No.”

“Then relax. You put too much on your shoulders.” Nico hummed under his breath, pulling Percy’s hands into his. “I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re safe and moving forward. I’d like to keep pace together.”

Percy nodded tightly, looking down at Nico’s hands. “Okay.” He exhaled sharply, tugging Nico forward into his chest and hugging him in close. “Mmmm. I love you.”

“Yeah, yeah, Jackson,” Nico grumbled. His sighs softened slowly and he hugged Percy back, tight. “I love you too.”


	35. 5/12/2020 - Walt, Sadie and Anubis

“So is everyone with a counterpart secretly non-b or is it just you?” Sadie asked, kicking her feet up on Walt’s lap as she snuggled into Anubis’s chest.

“Not just me,” he said. “But not everyone either.”

“And are all the boys as well endowed as you are when they’re girls?”

He squinted at her. She grinned. “I’m not answering that.”

“You should,” Walt said, pushing her feet off of him. “She’s a titty fiend. She will discover it one way or another.”

Sadie grinned wider as Anubis’s grin slipped further. “So they _are_.”

“I will leave you if you even try to replace my breasts with someone else’s,” he snapped. 

Laughing, she crawled up into his lap. “Nah, you’re safe, puppy boy.”

“I’m not-”

“You’re half of my favourite duo.” She pinched his cheeks. “I couldn’t get rid of you if I tried.”

Walt snorted and pushed her off of him. She landed with a squawk on the floor, replaced by Walt in Anubis’s lap. “If she leaves you for someone with nicer breasts, I’ll still be here,” he said.

Anubis scowled and nuzzled into his shoulder. “That’s because you have to be.”

As Sadie stood up, rubbing her whining knee, Walt rolled his eyes. “You were pretty hot even before you became my lifeline, feminine form or no.”

“Thank you,” Anubis muttered dryly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on my headcanon that Anubis is nonbinary as a result of him having a female counterpart in actual mythos - her name is Anput and she's also his wife.


	36. 5/12/20 - Walt and Anubis

Walt hummed as he picked up the wet but cleaned ring. He dried it off gently in his softest towel and admired it in the light.

“I like that one.”

After months of dealing with Nico doing the exact same thing, he didn’t jump out of his skin as much anymore when someone shot up behind him but his heart would always start pounding like crazy. He glanced over his shoulder, clenching the ring in his fist. “You weren’t supposed to see it yet.”

“I’m not gonna tell Sadie,” Anubis said, sneaking closer. He frowned when Walt waved him off, covering the other WIPs he had going on. “I’m not gonna tell her!”

“It’s not for her!” Walt huffed.

Anubis frowned deeper. “Oh.” He cocked his head. “I don’t think Nico will enjoy rainbow jewelry. He seems fond of his skull ring but that’s about it.”

Walt rolled his eyes. “It’s not for Nico either, you goofus.”

Thinking, Anubis bit his lip. “Carter?”

He could’ve laughed. “Carter doesn’t wear jewelry!” Walt eyed his boyfriend over. “Are you guessing everyone else on purpose? Do I really need to spell it out for you?”

His canine-headed boyfriend shook his head. “No. No. You’re right.” He sighed. “Zia, then?”

“Oh my-” Walt choked on a laugh. “Nu, it’s for you!”

Surprise hit him. “Oh.” He looked away. “Why?”

“Because I like you,” Walt said. He snuck the ring under the towel, out of sight, and stood up. “I like you a lot. When are you going to get it into your puppy dog head that I like you, without or without the saving my life factor?”

“Well-”

“No, well!” Walt wrapped his arms around Anubis’s neck. “I _love_ you. So much! Alright? I love you despite the being in my head all the time thing. I love you despite the annoying commentary when I’m watching a movie- _”_

 _“_ Historical accuracy-”

Walt slapped a hand over his mouth and grinned. “I love you. Sadie loves you because you’re you and not because you’re around and she feels like she has to. Believe me. You can’t make Sadie like anyone she doesn’t want to like. I got my life back and you really think I’m gonna spend it on pretending to care about someone I don’t like? No. Ew. That’s stupid.”

Anubis scowled. “I-”

“No.” Walt kissed his cheek and pulled back. “I like you and I love you and you have to stop thinking it’s out of requirement than actual want, alright?” Anubis nodded mutely. Walt cupped his cheek and kissed him again. “Now, go away, I have other stuff I was going to surprise you with and I want it to be a surprise.”

“I was going to ask you to lunch,” Anubis said quickly. He tugged Walt’s hands to him before Walt could step away. “You’re hungry. You need to eat.”

Walt glanced back at his table then turned to Anubis. “Okay. But nothing too high energy because I wanna finish this off tonight.”

“Falafel at a food truck then,” Anubis hummed, tugging Walt closer so he could sling an arm around his shoulders.

“Sounds like a bad idea.” Walt snuggled in. “Let’s do it.”


	37. 8/12/20 - Jason and Percy

"It's the middle of summer and you're making-" Percy picked up one of the slabs. "-gingerbread houses?"

Jason grinned, all sharp white teeth. "Yep!"

Percy inspected the cookie in his hand. It was marbled a brown and green. "Why are they green?"

Jason rubbed a speckled of powder sugar off his cheek, only serving to spread more of it against his skin. "Well, I don't have leaves. Way back when you'd build little huts out of leaves and branches for Neptunalia." He positioned his cookie cutter and pressed it in, eyes scattering around his stacks. "But I do not have the space or time to build a hut, especially when I have a decent apartment so!" He gestured loosely. "Cookies!" He paused. “Or cake.”

“Nobody knows,” Percy said, inspecting Jason’s many, _many_ slices, all marbled green and brown for branches and leaves.

He seemed way too pleased and frankly if Percy knew his dad, this was probably going to be just as appreciated as building a hut. "Is that why you asked me to come over? To curry favour with my dad?"

Jason's skin burned and he looked away. "Maybe."

Percy snorted and reached for the discards Jason had dumped into a bowl, tugging them out and chewing on them thoughtfully. "So it's just building huts? I mean I know you guys are like _meh_ with my dad but still." He frowned. “Seems kinda boring.”

Jason rolled his eyes as he began setting up his first gingerbread hut. "No, don't be ridiculous. The huts were crafted for shade in the heat during the festival. Of course, now we have air conditioning so nobody builds them these days - but I figured I'd add a couple to my altar for fun.” He frowned as he tried to get the icing to glue two ends together. “And also tradition dictates feasting so you know.” He shrugged. “Some sweets along with that ham I’m basting.”

At that Percy perked up. “Ham?”

With a wicked grin, Jason nodded. “Yes. Ham.” He scowled when the wall fell down, smearing icing everywhere. “‘Cause who’s the energy to kill a bull?”


	38. 26/12/2020 - Nico and Percy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on a convo I had with @butt-puncher (tumblr) about what I thought Charu’s question was actually gonna be (what the heck was the point of the Christmas thing??)

“I have one question for you,” Charu said. “Answer it correctly and you can have the bracelet of my fallen companion.” Percy’s stomach churned. Nico’s eyes didn’t shift, just a pleasant smile as he gazed at Charu who regarded Percy with a piercing skepticism. “What is you think makes your girlfriend a good recipient of jewelry from a deceased god?”

Percy blinked. _Huh._ That was a good question. He glanced down at the golden bracelet laid flat on the counter.

“Annabeth helped rebuild Olympus,” he said slowly, glancing at Nico, whose face was as unreadable as ever. “She designed it herself after the Second Titan War. She’s helped rebuild camp dozens of times. She’s even helping them expand New Rome. She does a lot for gods. She always has and she’s not really been shown the respect she deserves.” He snorted. “I mean, we all kind of have that issue, I guess.” He glanced at Nico again. “Except you, apparently.”

He could so easily imagine the wicked smile, baring all teeth and mirth, behind his mask. He laughed.

“And her cousin is Norse. And my friend Carter is an Egyptian magician.” Charu’s eyes traced over his face. Percy tucked his hands into his pockets. “She’s been amazing with them and they don’t even belong to her. She has respect for gods in a way… I’ll never understand.” Charu’s eyes lifted, his beak-like mouth almost smiling, amused. But Nico didn’t elbow him like he did the last time he muttered his disdain for gods so he figured he was safe.

“I guess, she would deserve it because she’s done a lot of gods who don’t give her the acknowledgement she deserves for all the things she’s done and is still doing.” Her plans for Olympus, for his dad’s kingdom, for all the Greek gods’ personal realms that had been lit up in shambles during either war (or both), were still stacked in their bedroom. She would review them pensively. 

There were still areas she hadn’t finished.

“But not only that…” He caught Charu’s gaze. “She would respect it. Who it belonged to. What it means to have it. She loves history, she likes learning things that make me fall asleep-” Nico rolled his eyes. “She would go insane trying to know who your friend was. And she would care for it, much better than if it was still stuck here, unused forever.”

The silence held heavy in the air. Tension built around his throat. God made or from his own head - he wasn’t sure. But then the god smiled.

“I trust Nico’s judgement graciously but _that_ -” His smile widened. “-was a very good answer indeed.” Percy relaxed as Charu handed him over the bracelet. “I hope she gathers as much use from it as my friend once did.”

“She will.” He closed his hand over the bracelet. His memory of Pan fading off into the air, disappearing into nothing, crashed into him like a wave as his skin burned into it. Gods may not have been born from belief but they sure stayed because of it. Belief and care. “Thank you.”

He wouldn’t have put it past her to resurrect the god from how much she would care.

“You’re welcome,” Charu said. “Have a good holiday.” He turned to Nico. “And a good Christmas to you, Nico.”

Nico nodded, bid his farewell in kind and they exited the store quietly. Percy gently put the bracelet into his pocket. They walked on in silence as Nico searched for a discreet shadow to drag them both through.

Just before they did, a little alleyway cut off from the rest of the paths and tucked comfortably between a little restaurant and another store, Percy pulled back. “Did you know that would be the price?” he asked.

Nico shrugged. “He changes it up each time. But that’s a pretty common one. They are priceless relics after all.”

“Did you-” The bracelet felt heavy in his pocket. “How did you know I’d answer it okay?”

“Well, I didn’t think you’d answer it in so many words.” Nico reached out. Percy took his hand. The shadows licked beneath their feet. “But I knew you’d be respectful about it. That’s all most of them really want. They’ve suffered enough. Just love what they used to be and they’ll take it.”

“Oh.” The shadows billowed around them. Anxiety snapped into him. “She will like it, right?”

Nico grinned. “I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think she would.”


End file.
